This section contains a selection of research and accumulated knowledge gathered by Tactical Tech's Data & Politics team as well as our international project partners. Resources and content referred to in the Learning Modules can also be found here.
Videos, guides, and articles to support voters in developing knowledge, literacy, and skills relating to political influence
A deep dive into data-driven campaigning, uncovering the tools that are used to understand, target and influence voters around the world. The PDF guide, featuring case studies from around the world, gives clear descriptions of thirteen of the methods, explaining how they work, how they use…
Highlighting fractured and alternating online experiences through a design system that gives a nod to online segmentation and targeting is what Tactical Tech's design team set out to do for The Influence Industry Project.
Readers, learners and explorers of The Influence Industry Project…
Hon. Neema Lugangira (MP, Tanzania) speaks with Varoon Bashyakarla to discuss the relationship between online discourse and gender equity in leadership, how the agricultural and nutrition sector are intertwined with technology, and how a girls coding camp in Tanzania convinced a UN office to be…
Kumar Sambhav and Varoon Bashyakarla discuss Sambhav’s latest investigative reportage about how Meta’s ad platform undercut political competition in Indian elections, the privacy implications of India’s national ID database, and why regulations need to be dynamic in order to protect citizens…
Join Varoon Bashyakarla and Eliana Quiroz as they discuss the unique work of Bolivian digital rights activists and organisers, and how they are mapping the disinformation ecosystem in Bolivia, particularly through the lens of the orgnisation that Eliana co-founded, Internet Bolivia.org.
In this conversation, Rafael Zanatta and Varoon Bashyakarla discuss how popular media often misrepresents techno-authoritarianism, the legal reaction to data breaches in Brazil and why data protection is for everyone.
Researcher and data journalist Nino Macharashvili speaks with data journalist Varoon Bashyakarla about the the state of politics in the country of Georgia in 2021.
Varoon Bashyakarla and Tetyana Bohdanova speak about Tetyana’s research on digital influence within the 2019 Ukrainian elections and the digital political landscape in 2021.
Varoon Bashyakarla speaks with Linda Bonyo and Catherine Muya about the opportunities and challenges of working on digital policy and advocacy in Kenya and across the African continent.
Join us as we hear from international researchers, professional and organisers. Inspired by the excellent work of professionals within our international networks, these interviews are a way to amplify the work and voices of the community examining the global and local practices of influencing…
In this conversation, Varoon Bashyakarla and Bob Diachenko discuss the often underreported causes of numerous breaches and data leaks, the effects of GDPR and other legislative measures and what could be expected of politicians running data-driven campaigns in the future.
The most common model used for psychometric profiling is the OCEAN model, named for the five main personality traits it measures. This tool allows visitors to take their own personality test, which then feeds them political ads.
This Data Detox Voter’s Guide describes a few of the most popular methods candidates are employing to win your support, so you can cast your vote with the knowledge of how and when these persuasion techniques are being used on you.
An introductory animated video describing a variety of uses of personal data in political elections, and some important consequences on our political and democratic processes.
A visual gallery exploring the claims and personality of companies working in the influence industry.
An overview of the 500 companies that formulate our sample of the influence industry and why we think this research matters for political participation
An overview of 300 companies who work in the influence industry and how each contribute to methods on asset, intelligence, and influence in political campaigns.
Our television viewing habits have acquired valuable political currency due to changes in the delivery of TV content and the role of personal data in the process. Together, these two developments make internet-enabled television — commonly referred to as 'Advanced TV' — possible.
Today, voter data is just as much of a target for malicious hacks and breaches as, say, credit card data, and is equally susceptible to poorly secured digital infrastructure. In fact, the problem has already reached a global scale.
Campaign apps capture various types of data that can benefit a campaign as well as the app creator, who can adapt the user experience to solicit even more information from the user. Signing up is often free, and according to makers of such apps, the cost of creating and maintaining an app is…
Digital listening is an umbrella term for monitoring and analysing what someone does or says on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Both the behaviour (retweeting, liking, sharing an image or commenting on a post) and the content (hashtags, tweets, posts and comments) are…
Political campaigns are recognising the value of geospacial information on voters and are investing in detailed, geolocation-based services for the intelligence they contain. Today, location information is the single most valuable piece of data for political campaigns.
A/B testing has been integrated into politics and has become part of standard campaign practice for websites, emails (subject lines, bodies), design elements (images, backgrounds, buttons), headlines, direct mail, TV, radio, phone and even texting to 'find the right messaging'.
Psychometric profiling is the process by which your actions are used to infer your personality. The technique was developed by academics and used by marketers and advertisers to assess the psychological characteristics of an individual or a group. These profiles give advertisers and political…
The growing accessibility of voter data now provides robocalling and mobile texting services with more ways to engage and analyse voters. These tools can also be used to gather additional data from voters, such as their likelihood to attend a campaign event or their stance on a particular issue…
Searching online is one of the key ways that we discover, learn and verify information, and for that reason, the ability to influence search results is a key tool for political campaigns looking to influence or target you before and during referendums, elections and other political debates.
If a political campaign wanted to target their advertisements to women interested in the Bible, conservative politics and the environment, it could turn to one of the scores of marketers and data brokers who have amassed large troves of personal data.
Though it is impossible to predict how exactly political campaigning will evolve in the future, the commercial sector and emerging areas of research and experimentation provide some hints as to what campaigns will be doing.
The past few years have seen WhatsApp become an increasingly powerful and influential tool for political campaigns in the Global South. For many people in the Global North, it may come as a surprise that participation in large WhatsApp groups constitutes the majority of online communication for…
Consumer data helps data brokers create detailed profiles of certain audiences, which are subsequently sold or made available to companies that want to target their customers - or in the political context, potential voters - according to their perceived preferences or attributes.
Voter files are profiles of individual voters that are collected into databases for political campaigning purposes. In its most basic form, a voter file is a list of people who could potentially vote in a given election. This data can also be combined with more detailed information, like party…
To better understand how political campaign apps around the world use voter data, Tactical Tech’s Data & Politics team has teamed up with The App Analyst and with local partners around the world to select and to study apps of interest.
From December 2–4, 2024, Tactical Tech’s Influence Industry Project brought together 35 researchers, artists, journalists, community organizers, and communications professionals from 14 countries at Publix House of Journalism in Berlin for the inaugural Digital Influence and Climate Friction…
At the start of summer 2020, Tactical Tech’s Data and Politics team collaborated with political analyst and writer, Nanjala Nyabola, to hold a virtual round-table to discuss the trends in the use of personal data in political campaigning in Sub-Saharan Africa. In this report, read about the…
In advance of next year's general election in India, Tactical Tech’s Influence Industry Project is excited to publish three case studies highlighting aspects of digital campaigns and the influence industry. The cases explore how consultancy firms work, regulation of diffuse actors in…
The report and interview examines how data-driven methods, previously documented by Tactical Tech, were used in the Georgian elections.
Project Lead, Amber Macintyre, worked with UK research team to conduct a deep dive investigation into the UK 2019 general election. The research paper examines the role of election suppliers in the UK using the public electoral spending database.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has prompted many of us to ask ourselves: what can we do right now, how might our future change, and what could we have done? This article examines these questions for those of us working on digital influence, whether on political communications, misinformation…
Tactical Tech partnered with Marianela Milanes to elucidate the role of digital campaigning and micro-targeting in Argentina's most recent presidential and legislative elections. Marianela Milanes is a Buenos Aires-based political scientist and researcher at the Asociación por los Derechos…
Coding Rights, Tactical Tech’s partner for the Brazilian country report, also delved deep into the data brokering industry, to find out how the larger structures behind the use of data in political campaigns work.
Tactical Tech partnered with Colin J. Bennett and Robin M. Bayley to examine the role of personal data in contemporary Canadian elections and how Canadian political parties implement voter data within their election campaign strategies. Bennett is a leading scholar on the political, legal and…
Tactical Tech partnered with the Eticas Foundation to look behind the headlines and clarify the role that personal data played during the climactic events of the independence referendum, in which there was never a definitive majority for either side of the debate, and in which personal data and…
Fundación Datos Protegidos partnered with Tactical Tech to investigate the role of data-driven campaigning in Chilean elections. Datos Protegidos is a non-profit organisation based in Chile that works with research, education, advocacy and policy on the right to privacy and the protection of…
Tactical Tech partnered with José Luis Peñarredonda, Associate Researcher at the Fundación Karisma based in Bogotá, to examine the personal information that candidates and parties have accumulated on Colombian voters and how they use it. The report, completed prior to the presidential election…
The Datos Protegidos team has continued to investigate the use of personal data used in political campaigns building from the original country study. This new update outlines how the law that protects privacy and personal data has developed from 1999 to 2018 as well as how these laws are poorly…
For our report on the use of data in the French elections, Tactical Tech partnered with Judith Duportail, a freelance journalist who frequently writes on freedom, love, and the role technology plays in mediating the two. Her past work explores how Facebook delivers targeted advertising, how…
Tactical Tech partnered with researcher Elonnai Hickok to elucidate the role played by digital platforms and personal data in India’s recent and upcoming first-past-the-post general elections in 2019, constituting the country’s 17th Parliament. Elonnai is a specialist in researching and…
Tactical Tech partnered with Fabio Chiusi and Claudio Agosti to investigate the role that data played in political campaigns in the run-up to the 2018 elections in Italy. Their research is detailed in an extensive report available here. Fabio Chiusi is a freelance journalist, blogger and…
Tactical Tech partnered with Grace Mutung’u, an Open Technology Fund Fellow at the Berkman Klein Center who specialises in freedom online and information controls in East Africa. She is also an associate at the Kenyan ICT Action Network where she carries out ICT and legal policy analysis.
Tactical Tech partnered with Boo Su-Lyn to explore the acquisition, analysis and application of personal data in the context of political campaigning in the lead-up to Malaysia’s 2018 general election. Boo is an assistant news editor and columnist with Malay Mail, a Malaysian news outlet.
Tactical Tech partnered with the Mexican non-profit organisation Articulo 12 to investigate the role that data and political influence have had in previous campaigns in the country and how they will influence the upcoming elections. The research is detailed in an extensive report in Spanish…
Tactical Tech and the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) joined forces in order to shed light on the wider digital and data-driven political influence industry in Nigeria, the digital tools and practices they other political agents employ during election periods and what future trend…
To help understand how personal data was being used in Ukrainian’s 2019 elections, Tactical Tech partnered with Tetyana Bohdanova, an elections and civil society development specialist and a Fellow at the Prague Civil Society Centre who has an established history of working with NGOs across…
For this report, Tactical Tech worked with Marjolein van Trigt, a Netherlands-based journalist whose work explores the impacts of technology on society. This overview of the use of data-driven campaign methods in the Netherlands is based on original research and interviews conducted by Van…
Members of Tactical Tech's Data and Elections team have undertaken extensive research in an effort to create a broader overview of the role of personal data in the 2015 and 2017 general elections and the EU referendum. The report synthesises and compares previous research, creating both a…
Tactical Tech partnered with Jeff Chester, Executive Director of the Center for Digital Democracy, and Kathryn Montgomery, Professor of Communication at American University. Both Chester and Montgomery have led consumer-rights initiatives and privacy legislation in the United States since the…