Netflix released documentary The Great Hack back on July 24. The film offers insight into the Cambridge Analytica scandal which saw millions of Facebook users’ data stolen with the company set to pay out billions of pounds for the privacy breach. The Great Hack outlines the controversy as well as providing footage from the parliamentary committee which interviewed some big figures including founder Alexander Nix, data researcher Chris Wylie and Brittany Kaiser.
One of the most important individuals featured in the documentary is whistleblower Kaiser, who worked for the data-mining firm.
Kaiser pitched the company’s services to the Donald Trump presidential campaign in 2015.
Prior to working for the firm, she was part of the Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama campaigns as an intern.
In The Great Hack, Kaiser was asked by interviewer Paul Hilder about her sudden change in career trajectory and switching from essentially working for the Democrats to the Republicans.
She explained family tragedy and the need to earn money led to a drastic shift.
“They didn’t want to pay me,” she said of the Clinton and Obama campaigns.
“And, um, when your family loses all their money and loses their family home, and your father who’s the main breadwinner, has brain surgery and can never work again,” she explained.
She added to Hilder: “You have to work for people that pay you.”
Her family lost their money in 2008 but Kaiser said “it took a while for it all to really fall apart”.
We lost our family home in 2014, when I started working for Cambridge.
However, since the scandal broke she has been vocal about her role and a campaigner for treating data in the same way human rights.
In the documentary she expressed her regret, saying: “As I said, it’s the opposite of what I’ve worked my whole life to do.”
She said she and others were responsible: “So the question is, what do we do with that responsibility?”
Since then she has been trying to help any government investigators and provide assistance about Cambridge Analytica.
Kaiser has been a key whistleblower and has been going on the record.
At the end of the documentary, it was revealed Kaiser has become a public advocate for data rights and provides testimony.
She is also working with lawmakers on the #OwnYourData campaign.
The Great Hack is available to watch on Netflix now
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