Focusing on the U.S. 2016 presidential election and Great Britain's Brexit campaign, The Great Hack details the measures taken by political operatives to successfully manipulate internet users' opinions and, ultimately, their votes. The camera follows some significant players in the real-life drama that unfolds. David Carroll, an educator who instigated the investigation by suing Cambridge Analytica to get his personal data back, represents those who were exploited. Brittany Kaiser, formerly an executive at Cambridge, is the whistle-blower who helps tell the tale. Carole Cadwalladr is the journalist whose thorough research confirmed the facts. The camera interviews these people and follows them as their voices are heard. Alexander Nix, the face of Cambridge Analytica, refuses to cooperate, but his presence on film and his words are crucial to the storytelling.

In this eye-opening, well-executed documentary, the filmmakers meet the challenge of blending complex tech information with heightening drama. Plus, there's plenty of "rooting interest." The thing is, in The Great Hack we end up rooting for ourselves, and the long odds of not being one of the fooled, the foiled, and the exploited, unmindful victims of "psy-ops" warfare. The villains here are those who believe it’s okay to call their business model "a behaviour change agency" and the people who hire them. The protagonists are the people fighting back.

In this piece, conservative ideologies are the bad guys. One fact revealed here is that there were 5.9 million visual ads on Facebook on behalf of Donald Trump's election, and 66,000 for Hillary Clinton. That won't always be the case. The internet – originally envisioned as the means to a wonderful, connected world – is suffering from growing pains, and until the same folks who dreamed it up and developed it can find a way to control its excesses and abuses, we're all in danger of becoming what this film and these companies call "the persuadable."

Worth a watch.