Netflix just released a documentary about Facebook hearing your conversations

WE NEED ANSWERS RIGHT NOW


Netflix has just released a documentary about how Facebook uses our data, looking into whether or not it can actually hear our conversations. So if you'd rather not have your mind blown about all the data social media knows about you, 'The Great Hack' probably isn't one to add to your list.

We've all had it happen to us, you'll have an innocent conversation about something completely random and then next thing you know there's an ad on your Facebook for something similar. It's creepy, right? Well this documentary addresses that. Is it actually a thing?

What is The Great Hack documentary about?

The Great Hack looks specifically at the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal was a major political scandal in 2018.

It revealed the company Cambridge Analytica (CA) had harvested the personal data of millions of people's Facebook profiles without their consent and used it for political advertising purposes. It was accused of swaying the Trump and Brexit votes, and people demanded answers from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. It eventually led to him agreeing to testify in front of the United States Congress.

On Netflix the two-hour doc is summarised as: "Explore how a data company called Cambridge Analytica came to symbolise the dark side of social media in the wake of the U.S. presidential election." It is categorised as a controversial, provocative, cerebral documentary.

The documentary focuses on three principal characters – Carole Cadwalladr, David Carroll and Brittany Kaiser.

Cadwalladr is a British journalist who famously exposed CA's ties to the Trump and Brexit campaigns. David Carroll is a New York professor and privacy campaigner who attempts to recover his stolen data from CA. Brittany Kaiser is a former CA employee whose famous testimony helped uncover the truth.

The aim of the documentary is to help the general public understand how data is being used by Facebook, and essentially manipulated. And yes, it does a deep dive into the popular conspiracy theory that Facebook can hear our conversations.

According to The Great Hack, everything down to doing seemingly fun personality quizzes in Facebook allows companies like CA to scrape your data. So wow, they definitely know what type of bread I am, and if I was a McDonald's order what I would be. Scary.

By the end of this documentary you're probably going to doubt everything and want to throw your phone at the nearest wall.

When is The Great Hack released on Netflix?

The Great Hack's release date on Netflix was Wednesday 24th July 2019. The documentary is available to stream now.

Watch the trailer for The Great Hack on Netflix here:

For all the latest Netflix news, drops and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.

Related stories recommended by this writer:

Netflix is making a true crime documentary about the Yorkshire Ripper

The 13 best true crime series on Netflix right now for real addicts

We investigated how accurate ‘last seen’ is on WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook