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BSA-2, LivIT

THE GREAT HACK MOVIE REVIEW

The 2016 US Presidential election, the Brexit referendum, and other international political campaigns are all
addressed in "The Great Hack" to a lesser extent. A now-defunct company named Cambridge Analytica, which is
represented by a number of former workers throughout the movie, is the unifying denominator in all these
incidents. The business had access to up to 5,000 data points about each person in its databases at the height of its
power. This information was employed in a number of ways to influence different demographic groups. The master
manipulators sought out those who were on the fence, or "the persuadable," rather than those whose minds were
already made up. To get the desired results for the political parties who engaged Cambridge Analytica, they set out
to incite fear and/or apathy using the data they had gathered. Carroll's action is an effort to obtain the information
gathered about him.

Christopher Wylie, a programmer and data analyst who worked on multiple algorithms, and Brittany Kaiser,
one of the company's brightest stars, give insight into the inner workings of Cambridge Analytica. Kaiser, a former
intern for the Obama campaign, has the idea to manage the GOP's 2016 campaign. Someone claims that Cambridge
sided with the Republicans because, unlike the Democrats, they won't check the accuracy of information they get
online. Kaiser offers some extremely intriguing facts, but the movie doesn't really make her answer for it. Although it
considers her to be a whistleblower, it never questions whether or not she is also blowing the whistle on herself. This
is one of "The Great Hack's" more serious flaws.

This film is certain to stir up controversy because it not only views Brexit and the GOP presidential
campaign's use of Cambridge Analytica as a nefarious act of psychological warfare against an unknowing public, but
also because it shows how easily large groups of people can be persuaded to vote against their own interests.

To conclude, according to reports, tech corporations are among the wealthiest industries in the world. Since
data is currently the most in-demand good on the market, they will stop at nothing to obtain it. The most concerning
part of all of this is that we don't know what is being done with our data. Even though it lacks the guts to criticize us
for our willing contributions, "The Great Hack" successfully drives home that point.

References:

The Great Hack Movie

Moore R. (2020, Jan. 8) Documentary Review: “The Great Hack”. Retrieved from rogersmovienation.com:
https://rogersmovienation.com/2020/01/08/documentary-review-the-great-hack/

Henderson O. (2019, July 24) The Great Hack. Retrieved from rogerbert.com:
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-great-hack-2019

Kenigsberg, B. (2019, July 23) The Great Hack’ Review: How Your Data Became a Commodity. Retrieved from The
New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/23/movies/the-great-hack-review.html