The Great Hack

A documentary built around a data company. Cambridge Analytica advised election campaigns. Its claim was simple: with enough data you can know how to persuade a voter. After the company closed, the film looks at the people left behind. David is an academic. He brings a case against the company; what he wants is not damages but to see what data was collected about him. It goes on for years and no answer comes. Brittany had worked there. She defends it at first, then testifies to parliament, and her view changes several times through the narrative; the documentary holds her as both witness and suspect. There is a journalist as well. Carole Cadwalladr writes about it and finds herself facing legal threats. From there the film looks at two campaigns. A referendum and a presidential election, in both of which the same method is said to have been used. What the narrative is interested in is not technology but consent: the question at its centre is not whether the data was stolen but whether people knew what they were giving. The Trinidad section is the most concrete example. A campaign organised to keep young people from voting is described and the mechanism is shown step by step. The documentary offers no conclusive proof. Whether the method worked, and how much it changed the outcome, is left open, and that is its most criticised feature. The visual language is heavy. Data flows are drawn as graphics on screen and text is laid over cities. The production was made for Netflix. Karim Amer and Jehane Noujaim directed. Who it is for: anyone interested in the argument about data, privacy and elections. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a clear conclusion; the documentary builds the case but does not close it.