Data and Activism

Over the past year, our Data & Activism project has released five chapters full of playful exercises for civil society organisers, which have now been combined into the complete Organiser's Activity Book.

Working with data comes with risks. This four-step guide from our Data & Activism project is designed to help individuals, NGOs and other civil society actors create their own Data Policy.

Civil society organisers rely on personal data and data-driven tactics to support individuals and groups. Find out about the importance of a data policy in this latest article from our Data & Activism project.

In this chapter of the Organiser's Activity Book, discover what types of personal data are created during online events. Learn about the tools that are available to host online events; the differences in how they work; and their risks and benefits.

This new chapter of the Organiser's Activity Book from our Data & Activism project looks at event promotion. The playful activities, aimed at organisers, campaigners and human rights defenders, explore the consequences, risks and benefits of using tools like social media in terms of personal data.

What data traces do we leave when we travel? A new chapter of the playful, interactive Organiser's Activity Book helps civil society organisers deal with 'data baggage', including flights, visas and accommodation.

The Organiser’s Activity Book is a new self-learning resource from Tactical Tech’s Data and Activism project. The book is a collection of playful exercises for organisers within civil society who work with the personal data of human rights defenders, investigators, campaigners, and others who are taking part in social or political action.

This paper looks at shrinking civic space in terms of the digital, in particular the role that digital technologies can have on restricting the spaces of civil society organisations and their activities.

There has been a lot of resources written on safer use of digital technologies and social media platforms for CSOs, grassroots groups, activists and politically-active individuals. Here we present a curated list of resources, a pool of links that can help you respond to existing risks and threats.

At every stage, travelling means giving away an immense amount of data that is either required by governments or by companies that provide travel-related services, or that can be automatically generated in the background. This article gives insight into the data you give away when travelling.

The GDPR compliance explained with a last-minute checklist for civil society organisations and grassroot groups to help you check that you are handling data according to the GDPR requirements.

In the past several years, internet-enabled scams have become more insidious. As technology advances and skills and resources are becoming more readily available, scammers are able to create more believable and difficult to detect websites, emails, social media profiles, and other tools to help them carry out their schemes. In this article, we will expose internet scam operations by exploring types of scams that you are likely to come across which will hopefully build your resiliency.

Tactical Tech interviewed Independent Researcher and Consultant Tetyana Bohdanova, who shared insights into the collaboration with the Influence Industry Project.

The "Media Literacy Case for Educators" project provides teachers, trainers and librarians across Europe with a one-of-a-kind comprehensive set of co-developed and creative tools, resources, methods and materials.

The work for a better digital future must be done in the present, or we are failing the young generation. The digital future must be just, equitable, accessible, safe, inclusive and kind.

For years, Tactical Tech has worked to understand and visualise Big Tech's impact on society. In this piece, you will be taken on a journey through the different formats, narratives and visual representations Tactical Tech has used to tell the story behind the acquisitions, mergers and investments of the Big Tech Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft. Read to learn about our provocation design approach to promote digital thinking.

Our What The Future Wants exhibition and digital and media literacy resources for young people are now available in 15 different languages. To date, the What the Future Wants events have engaged more than 11.500 participants in 30  countries.

Data about reproduction, and especially menstruation, is being tracked and gathered by many different companies, without people’s awareness of the extent or the financial value this data has, nor the possible consequences for them individually or the collective harm.

We are looking to partner with organisations or networks from the Latin America and Caribbean region (LAC) that would like to introduce and train communities on how to investigate and keep themselves secure. T

Tactical Tech interviewed Clement Njoroge, Founder and Director of MediaNet Works, an initiative that empowers communities, especially the younger generation so that they can reap the benefits of the Internet and the general ICTs available to them. Media Net is working to incorporate marginalised groups by building relationships and learning how technology is used in the communities now and how it could be used in their lives.

We seek organisations and cultural centres working with youth on topics related to media and digital literacy.

We seek an experienced researcher who has a good understanding of digital and media literacy to work with us on a limited-time consultancy contract to gather and distil the latest research in the field of digital media literacy education.

Tactical Tech interviewed Gordana Baboska and Falk Schleicher from the Dept. of Educational Cooperation at Goethe-Institut Skopje, who shared insights into the work of the organisation and the collaboration with Tactical Tech.

GAFAM Empire is a project developed by DensityDesign Lab and Tactical Tech that looks at all the known acquisitions conducted by five big tech companies: Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft, from the moment they made their first one to the end of summer of 2022, when we stopped collecting data.

We are looking for an engaged HR Manager with strong organizational and interpersonal skills, committed to a non-profit cause to run and shape our HR operations and ensure adherence to labour law.

Tactical Tech interviewed Soledad Magnone, director of the JAAKLAC, an initiative that, through collaborative projects, designs and researches the possibilities of Critical Digital Education (CDE), which nurtures individuals’ understanding of how technologies affect societies and the environment and promotes collective action to manifest fairer digital societies.

Tactical Tech’s Exposing the Invisible project offers resources that provide you with knowledge, good practices and tools to enhance your investigative skills

This series outlines the initiation, delivery, and findings of the What the Future Wants project (so far) in the hope that other organisations, initiatives, and individuals working with young people can learn from our experience and the rich insights of all of the young people who contributed.

In this mini-series, we explore how Tactical Tech’s first youth-centered team co-created the public education intervention What the Future Wants, which was released in Spring 2022. Here we dive into the workshops we conducted and share principles and practices that informed the co-creation process and findings from the workshops.

Tactical Tech’s Data & Politics team seeks partners to enhance and co-develop The Influence Industry Explorer. The main goal of the partnerships is to enhance the data in the database and tell stories using the data.

The Digital You initiative is a collaboration between Goethe-Institut Kinshasa and Tactical Tech, that invites young people in Sub-Saharan African countries to think critically about their relationship with digital technologies and how tech influences their lives.

Tactical Tech launches “The Influence Industry Explorer”, an online investigation tool that comprises evidence on 500 companies that work with political groups in over 30 countries to influence voters’ opinions.

The “Digital Reset” report by the project ‘Digitalization for Sustainability – Science in Dialogue’ (D4S) shows how digital technologies can support the quest for such a deep sustainability transformation. The report provides a blueprint for the European Union to reconceptualise digitalisation so that it first and foremost contributes to achieving carbon neutrality, resource autonomy and economic resilience while supporting equity and fully respecting citizens’ rights and privacy.

The What the Future Wants project is looking for a Safeguarding Expert with experience working with young people (11-18 years old),  for a limited-duration consultancy. The Safeguarding Expert will conduct a training session for Tactical Tech staff and partners and draft written guidelines for safeguarding practices to be implemented when working with young people worldwide.

In 2021, Tactical Tech worked to empower organisations worldwide to build a sustainable digital future. The main focuses of our projects and initiatives were changing the conversation, expanding knowledge, advancing skills, and reaching new audiences. This report highlights the key results of 2021.

Tactical Tech's “Exposing the Invisible” (ETI) project is looking for a short-term podcast producer to develop a concept and implement a series of podcasts focused on topics related to innovative investigation methods, cases and community engagement with investigations.

The outdoor exhibition by Tactical Tech, co-produced by HAU Hebbel am Ufer, explores through the lens of technology how people get informed, make decisions and respond to current global crises like climate change, pandemics or political polarisation.

The 'What The Future Wants project' aims to put young people in the driving seat of their digital futures through education, co-creation and capacity building.

Tactical Tech is looking for engaged, outgoing exhibition hosts to assist in an outdoor, public exhibition about technology and crisis entitled “Everything Will Be Fine.” The exhibition takes place in a temp

We are looking for an engaged Grants and Fundraising Coordinator with strong organisational and interpersonal skills, committed to a non-profit cause to coordinate grant management, ensuring adherence to contracted work plans and log-frames across grants.

We are looking for partner individuals, organisations, or collectives in Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA) to collaborate with the worldwide-renowned Data Detox Kit.

Tactical Tech's Products Team is looking for a Design Intern to assist with our print materials and public-facing websites.

We are looking to partner with organisations or networks that would like to help spread the knowledge about investigation, conduct events (workshops, training), test and contextualize the curricula we have been developing, and contribute to improving it based on feedback from trainers and participants.

Tactical Tech is opening a year-long volunteer opportunity for an individual who would like to learn more about sustainable digital technologies and support our international reaching work and join our team in the Berlin-based office.

Tactical Tech is looking for a motivated junior DevSecOps specialist who is willing to learn and actively collaborate with our IT and tech team.

In this training series, experts in the field will provide you with skills, tools and best practices in digital security.

Apply to join our two-week online Summer School organised by Tactical Tech’s Influence Industry Project and Exposing the Invisible project over 6 half days between the 18th - 29th July 2022.

At Tactical Tech, a Berlin-based non-profit organisation, we design and co-develop playful and forward-looking experiences, interventions, events and educational resources that invite people to think about how technology influences their lives and changes the world they live in.

The Exposing the Invisible project launched a section that includes structure, techniques, tips and tools that you can use to organise training sessions on online and offline investigation methods. Explore this new section now!

How common are data leaks? How often is our data exposed? Listen to data scientist Varoon Bashyakarla and security expert Bob Diachenko talking about data security and the role played by companies and political groups.

Exposing the Invisible (ETI) is looking for a short-term video producer who will help us with producing and editing audiovisual material.

Tactical Tech is looking for partners to collaborate with the What the Future Wants (WTFW), a project that aims to put young people in the driving seat of their digital futures and enable them to think critically and proactively about the digital environment they want to live.

Tactical Tech is looking for partner organisations to co-develop, adapt and host events for our projects

Between life hacks, news, and inspiration, not all the information you consume online is equal. How can you know who to trust? Check out this new guide from our Data Detox Kit, adapted from the Digital Enquirer Kit!

Are you a journalist/media professional from the European Union interested in enhancing your training expertise and workshop design and development skills? Apply for this free 'Exposing the Invisible' course by 15th March!

The Data Detox Kit, The Glass Room, What the Future Wants, and the Digital Enquirer Kit are seeking partners!

A new article from Exposing the Invisible: The Kit provides an introductory journey intended for anyone with an interest in listening – rather than just hearing – and using sound as evidence when researching and investigating the surrounding environment.

Our Exposing the Invisible project is looking for a professional facilitator of Training of Trainers (ToT) workshops to deliver online ToT sessions to EU-based journalists and other media professionals. Apply by 24th February!

Building on content from our Digital Enquirer Kit, learn how to conduct a reverse image search to verify a photo’s origins on the internet in this Data Detox Kit article!

How can you be sure that what you see on apps like Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and WhatsApp is reliable? Explore visual information with a new guide from our Data Detox Kit, adapted from the Digital Enquirer Kit!

Explore how to use local or digital libraries and archives more efficiently, and take an in-depth look into their possibilities and resources with a new guide from Exposing the Invisible: The Kit!

Take a look at this new case-based guide on how to critically “read” and use maps for investigation, resistance and more, from Exposing the Invisible: The Kit.

Our 'Exposing the Invisible' project is looking for consultants from the European Union who have training and curriculum expertise in the field of investigation, research and data exploration. Learn more and apply by 21.12!

Tactical Tech is looking for a committed and engaged person interested in learning and growing while using their professional skills within our Development team. Apply by January 16th!

What are the persuasive design and 'dark patterns' that keep us hooked to our phones? The Unboxing Tech Toolkit, developed by the Pranava Institute alongside young people in India, is a youth workbook about how technology can tune our behavior, emotions and attention, and importantly, what can be done about it.

The Glass Room presents Capsule 2.0, 'Nothing Personal?', our latest showcase of digital objects, both old and new. This second capsule explores how technologies are designed, branded and engineered to collect deeply personal data and influence our real-time behaviours.

Tactical Tech is looking for a committed and engaged individual to join our Data and Politics team as a Project Coordinator.

A new Data Detox Kit guide, adapted from content from our Digital Enquirer Kit, explains how to avoid falling for tricky URLs.

We are excited to present Tactical Tech's first ever podcast series, from our Exposing the Invisible project, in which experienced investigators discuss what drives them and the methods they use. Listen now!

The first two modules of our Digital Enquirer Kit, tackling the theme of misinformation, are now available on the free Atingi platform, with more modules and translations coming soon. Sign up now!

Our Executive Director and co-founder Stephanie Hankey, along with other experts, spoke to NPR about the implications of billions of people worldwide relying on WhatsApp - listen to the full podcast!

Good stories are relatable: they speak to the reader. Stories that have data at the centre are no different. Find out how to make numbers resonate with the reader in this new article from our Exposing the Invisible project!

Tactical Tech is offering an internship position for a student or a junior professional to assist The Glass Room project in preparing materials and supporting partners globally in organising events for their communities.

The digital media sphere is thriving in the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking Americas. Crucially, many “new digitals” are collaborating with each other - find out more with this list of initiatives from our Exposing the Invisible project.

Our Executive Director and co-founder Stephanie Hankey responds to Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen's testimony and argues that, when it comes to social media and young people: "it's Big Tech that needs to grow up".

Climate disasters are often described as 'natural' phenomena, only remotely fuelled by carbon emissions. This article from Exposing the Invisible explores pathways for investigating climate disasters and how - or whether - communities can adapt to them.

We are looking for a highly committed and experienced Project Coordinator for a group of projects under the key theme 'Online Influence and Opinion'. Read more and apply by October 5th!

From the tech boom to tech backlash, our understanding of the digital has become both deeply personal and deeply political. Two major Glass Room exhibitions tackling these themes are taking place in The Netherlands, in Leeuwarden and Amsterdam.

Detox de Datos Latinx is a social media campaign and project for young people in Latin America and the Caribbean to educate their peers about data and technology, based on our Data Detox x Youth.

The 'Technologies of Hope & Fear' project received an Honorary Mention in the frame of the Prix Ars Electronica. This interactive research looks at a curated selection of 100 technologies developed in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Our Exposing the Invisible project is hosting an online conference from 2nd-6th August to celebrate the people, initiatives & techniques that make investigation accessible. Attendance is free - register by 31st July!

You can’t trust everything you read, see or hear. Learn from a practitioner what it means to fact-check every piece of information you find and intend to use in this latest chapter of Exposing the Invisible: The Kit.

Never investigate alone. Collaboration is essential to your safety, well-being and effectiveness as an investigator, no matter the context. This guide from Exposing the Invisible: The Kit will help you plan, organise and run your collaboration with investigators, sources and others.

In our Annual Report 2020, you can read about our activities and successes across each of our projects last year, as well as who we are as an organisation and how we responded to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our Exposing the Invisible project is looking for a short-term podcast producer to help create a series of brief, inspiring and informative podcasts.

The final part of our Data & Politics series on Medium looks at campaign apps around the 2021 election in Uganda, in cooperation with The App Analyst.

How was a mobile phone shop in Vietnam able to access personal data from voters in Ghana? The third part of our Data & Politics series on Medium looks at campaign apps in the 2020 Ghanaian election.

The Glass Room presents Capsule 1.0, a quarterly showcase of digital objects - old and new - from previous Community Edition series, independent investigations and collaborations. This first capsule explores how our phone numbers, face prints and personal data travel from our smartphones to different third-party organisations.

The second in this series of articles on Medium from our Data & Politics project looks at how the 'appification' of nearly every aspect of our lives has spread to politics, elections and issue campaigning.

Our Data and Politics project has released an updated version of The Influence Industry Long List, with 500 companies working with personal data to support political campaigns, from digital campaign consultants to data brokers.

A new chapter of Exposing the Invisible: The Kit looks at how combining different openly available information sources can lead to meaningful results in your investigation, using what is known as open source intelligence.

Finding and gathering information is essential to any investigation, but not all data sets are created equal. This new chapter of Exposing the Invisible: The Kit includes descriptions of common file types, methods for gathering data, and a how-to guide on converting your data into a format more easily analysed by computer programs.

We are looking for experienced Researchers/Writers with a strong understanding of digital investigative techniques, to help create written learning materials to train journalists, human rights defenders, and civil society on leading investigations, particularly in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, MENA, and Southeast Asia.

What do young people need to know about artificial intelligence (AI) in order to use it responsibly and make informed decisions? Our co-founder Stephanie Hankey spoke to the Goethe-Institut about the need for educational institutions and civil society to join forces to promote digital literacy.

Tactical Tech is seeking partners to work with us to deliver a new project that explores the topics of European youth, technology, culture and critical thinking based on our award-winning project The Glass Room.

Join us for a free four-week online Investigative Training Institute from 4th - 31st May 2021! You will learn from and collaborate with civil society investigators across the European Union to develop skills and techniques for secure investigations and digital research. Applications close 28th March.

We are excited to announce the launch of our new report 'Personal Data and the Influence Industry in Nigerian Elections' in partnership with CDD West Africa, which highlights techniques and technologies used by political actors in recent campaigns in Nigeria.

Tactical Tech’s Data & Politics Team is excited to announce that the Swedish Postcode Foundation will support our latest initiative to create transparency on the use of personal data in political campaigns and the surrounding influence industry.

When you Google your name, you'll likely find a whole range of digital traces: do you want the world to find everything you've ever put online? A new Data Detox Kit article explains how to curate your online identity and accounts.

Check out this updated visualisation of the data you give away when you click 'I Agree', with key phrases from the terms and conditions of popular apps and services.

Our Data & Politics team has teamed up with The App Analyst to explore the personal data collected by election campaign apps. Read more on Medium - or nominate an app for analysis!

You may already know that airplanes, fast fashion and factory farming are harmful to the environment, but have you ever considered the carbon footprint of watching videos or sending emails? Find out more in a new chapter of the Data Detox Kit!

Together with partners from across the globe, Data & Politics' flagship report and guide 'Personal Data: Political Persuasion. Inside the Influence Industry' is now available in Arabic, Hausa, Khmer, Russian, Spanish and Ukrainian.

If Europe’s elections are to remain contests of campaigns’ political ideas and not of their digital strategies, the systemic challenges to democracy must not be overlooked by the fires of the present moment. Varoon Bashyakarla from our Data & Politics team writes for the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung.

In order to investigate the 'Influence Industry' in different contexts and countries, our Data & Politics project has partnered with a diverse range of organisations and individuals in the Global South. Find out more about the work these partners do.

You’ve identified and collected information that may serve as evidence in your investigation. What next? Learn how to analyse and verify it as well as how to evaluate your information sources in this new chapter from Exposing the Invisible: The Kit.

Misinformation and disinformation have dominated headlines in 2020 and eroded trust in the information that surrounds us, from social media to conventional media; from politicians to scientists; from text to photographs to videos. Reality, it seems, is increasingly only skin deep. Find out more in this article on Medium.