Trailer released for Netflix documentary exposing Cambridge Analytica

Last year Christopher Wylie, a whistleblower who worked for the firm, claimed that his work helped Donald Trump’s presidential campaign to gain unprecedented insight into voters’ habits before the election.

He also claimed that a Canadian business with ties to the firm’s parent company also provided analysis for the Vote Leave campaign ahead of the Brexit referendum.

He argued the research likely breached campaign financing laws and may have helped to sway the final Brexit outcome.

In November last year the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) ruled that Facebook had let a “serious breach” of the law take place during the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which the data of up to 87 million Facebook users data was misused.

But Facebook protested that the ICO had “found no evidence” that data had been used in political campaigns.

Leave.EU is also reported to have held four meetings with Cambridge Analytica, but protested it never paid the data analytics firm for any work.

Damian Collins, chair of the UK parliament’s fake news inquiry, said: “I can’t think of any sort of relationship between a supplier and an organisation which would involve so many meetings over such a long time which neither side regards as working together, and which neither expect to get paid for it, and both sides seem so adamant in denying.”

The firm closed after the accusations came to the surface, but now Netflix is likely to re-open unanswered questions with its new programme.

The Great Hack comes from award-winning filmmakers Karim Amer and Jehane Noujaim and uncovers the dark world of data exploitation with astounding access to the personal journeys of key players on different sides of the explosive data scandal. It includes Guardian journalist Carole Cadwalladr.

It will be available to view in the UK from July 24th.