Netflix Takes Aim at Facebook With ‘The Great Hack’
Privacy no longer exists, because we gave it away when we chose to embrace a digital life. With every tweet, like, comment, share and upload, we willingly sacrificed the confidentiality of our personal information—and, consequently, knowledge about the way we think and feel about everything and anything—in exchange for connectivity and convenience. That data has now been turned against us, used by corporate entities to manipulate our opinions, shape our behavior, and alter our social and political realities. And worst of all, we have no idea what specific data we’ve surrendered, and which pieces of it are being exploited for nefarious ends.
But we do know which tech giant is most to blame for taking advantage of this new online paradigm: Facebook.
Premiering on Netflix and in select theaters on July 24, The Great Hack is the most enraging, terrifying and—I don’t use this term lightly—important documentary of the year. Directed by Karim Amer and Jehane Noujaim (The Square), its subject is the Cambridge Analytica data scandal—a story that’s galling on the surface, and infinitely more bone-chilling when one considers its far-reaching ramifications. That’s because Cambridge Analytica’s deceptive and criminal relationship with, and conduct on, Mark Zuckerberg’s social media platform had world-altering consequences: helping launch the Brexit movement, and successfully aiding the election campaign of Donald Trump. It was the opening of Pandora’s Box, and as reporter Paul Hilder opines, “some things get broken and stay broken.”