ANNUAL REPORT 2019
Building civil society and human rights technology capacity since 2003

A series of public education interventions enabling audiences
around the world to explore the ways technology impacts their lives

92,936 people visited the Glass Room exhibitions andGlass Room Community Editions around the world in 2019.

https://tinyurl.com/y9qzwc9j

KYIV BIENNIAL

TACTICAL TECH

20,6912,000700

MEDIA IN
TRANSITION 10
CONFERENCE

UKIYO
CONFERENCE

100

BERLIN300

LONDONSAN FRANCISCO CA

50,000CityLAB

OrgConDIGITALRIGHTSFOUNDATION

KYIV

100

CAMBRIDGE MAOSAKAISLAMABAD

VIVATECH

3,000

PARIS

THAN
NAIROBIDATOSPROTEGIDOS

92,936450ART
BENGALURU

BANGALORE

300IHUB

60SANTIAGO

66 EVENTS IN 29 COUNTRIES
Argentina
Belgium
Bolivia
BrazilChile

Colombia
Costa Rica
Denmark
Estonia
FranceGermany
Ghana
India
Italy
Japan

Kenya
Netherlands
NorwayPakistan
PolandPortugal
Spain
SwedenSwitzerland
UkraineUgandaUKUSA
ZambiaEXHIBITIONCOMMUNITY EDITIONRECEIVEDVISITORSTHE GLASS ROOM: COMMUNITY EDITION

THE GLASS ROOM: SAN FRANCISCO

The Glass Room San Francisco ran from 16th October to 3rd November 2019with 20,691 visitors, a daily program of events, and over 50 artworks

After visiting The Glass Room I feel…
Much more aware of how little I know about my own
information… also creeped out

After visiting The Glass Room I feel…
More cognizant of how the surveillance culture has permeated somany aspects of contemporary life in the more modernized world

After visiting The Glass Room I want to…
Vote for someone who wants to address thisLearn to become an active advocate

After visiting The Glass Room I want to…
Bring my 5th grade students here so they can learn about how their data is used/collected

My favorite thing about The Glass Room is…
The perfect combination of complex & vital information
with digestible presentation

My favorite thing about The Glass Room is…
The broad range of subject areas covered – from questioning theextent of surveillance culture in our daily lives to showing thehappy accidents data artists/researchers discover whileworking

After visiting The Glass Room I feel…
Nervous about the amount of data there is about me out therethat is collected by the products/companies I use
After visiting The Glass Room I want to…
Change the settings on my phone and laptop to ensure I am asprotected as possible
My favorite thing about The Glass Room is…
The Data Detox Kit – very useful and handy little packet to keep
and has smart tools to maximise protection

After visiting The Glass Room I feel…
Unsettled, informed
After visiting The Glass Room I want to…
Bring a rep from the museum to speak at mycompany (LinkedIn)
My favorite thing about The Glass Room is…
Interactive

After visiting The Glass Room I feel…
Excited that information about technology and data is being
shared with people who don’t necessarily work in the field ina clear, thought-provoking way that is easy to understandAfter visiting The Glass Room I want to…
Explore these topics deeper, and prompt people to ask theright questions
My favorite thing about The Glass Room is…
The interactive nature of the exhibit

After visiting The Glass Room I feel…
Inspired to rethink how I share my information and learn more
about action being taken by workers in the tech industry
After visiting The Glass Room I want to…
Unplug my devices
My favorite thing about The Glass Room is…
Showing in creative and original ways information that
we need to know

After visiting The Glass Room I feel…
Uncomfortable, dependent, watched, exploited
After visiting The Glass Room I want to…
Take more control of my data, increase awareness of how
I consciously & unconsciously give away agency
My favorite thing about The Glass Room is…
The aesthetics are simple, the concept is complex

After visiting The Glass Room I feel…
Violated
After visiting The Glass Room I want to…
Tell everyone I know to visit The Glass Room and your websites
My favorite thing about The Glass Room is…
Insightful & digestible. Easy for the average person tounderstand. Detailed enough to learn something new.

“A new art and technology exhibit indowntown San Francisco mimics
perfectly the ubiquitous form of somany technology stores — though
not their function.”
San Francisco Chronicle“Big Tech shattered in Glass Roomart exhibit“			CNET“There’s something about seeing
deleted web searches printed
out in receipt form — a physicalmanifestation of virtual activity— that puts things in perspective.“		East Bay Times

QUOTES FROM THE PRESS
After visiting The Glass Room I feel…
Wary
After visiting The Glass Room I want to…
Send my co-workers here (so I don’t have to keep explaining
tech things to them and why it’s important)
My favorite thing about The Glass Room is…
Conversations with people

After visiting The Glass Room I feel…
Humbled? I work as a data analyst and I feel like most people in
my field are all too eager to pipe data into everything so it’s
great to see this perspective
After visiting The Glass Room I want to…
Continue being an advocate for humans within the data world
My favorite thing about The Glass Room is…
Big Mother, very great perspective

After visiting The Glass Room I feel…
Instagram does not pay me nearly enough to look at cats
After visiting The Glass Room I want to…
Move to a cave in the Pyrenees with a flip phone. Solar panel atthe cave entrance to charge phone.
My favorite thing about The Glass Room is…
Scanning my driver’s license is scary seeing how muchthey know

MORE THAN
2,000 FEEDBACK CARDSRECEIVED“Like all the best art exhibits,“The Glass Room” left me with lotsof questions, like: how do you getpeople to actually care about theinformation we share and what
would it take to get us to change
our behaviors?“			YR MediaDATA & POLITICS

A research project investigating the way personal data
is used in political campaigns worldwide.

https://tinyurl.com/ycddmv4u

Der Tagesspiegel (Germany)

The New York Times (USA)Al Jazeera (Kenya)

La Nacion (Argentina)“Bekanntheit erreichten vor allem Social Bots, diein den sozialen Medien zum Einsatz kommen undden öffentlichen Diskurs verändern. So können etwa
Wahlergebnisse manipuliert werden. Über solche
Gefahren informiert die NGO Tactical Tech.”“The Conservatives spent 3.98 million pounds ($5.17million) on social media and data-driven advertisingduring the last general election campaign in 2017, up
71% from the previous election in 2015, according
to research by Tactical Tech, a Berlin-based groupthat seeks to mitigate the impact of technology onsociety.”“A report from Tactical Tech reveals the extent ofabuse that occurred during the 2017 presidential
election in the absence of a rigorous data protection
law. Voter registers were available for sale and werepublicly available through SMS and web, which allowed politicians to send unsolicited text messages
and even make calls to voters.”“La ONG berlinesa Tactical Tech en colaboración
con la brasileña Coding Rights a través de una
serie de reportes minuciosos desde 2015 monitorea
la influencia de WhatsApp como piedra angular deesfuerzos de desinformación masivos.”

https://tinyurl.com/tlmytyn

https://tinyurl.com/w6h7keu“The content and resources of Tactical Tech havebeen an inspiration on the subject...we have sent
them to many electoral, political and academicauthorities.”
Marianela Milanes,
Asociación por los Derechos Civiles (ADC), Argentina

1,000

copies of the guidebook distributed worldwide tomedia, policy makers, researchers, campaigners,
general public and practitioners.

https://tinyurl.com/y6hqb9hb

https://tinyurl.com/u3fa33u

RECIPIENTS OF GUIDEBOOK
Personal Data: Political Persuasion

MEDIA

35%
PRACTITIONERSGENERAL PUBLIC

5%
10%

10%

POLICY MAKERS“We recommend consideration of the research by
Tactical Tech, in particular the lists of 100s ofcompanies operating in this sphere.“Privacy International“Much can be learned from reports on past elections;these include: Tactical Tech’s Data and Politics
Project with examples from a range of countries
around the world.”
The Constitution Society“Tactical Tech’s report was the most comprehensive
comparative analysis on use of personal data anddata surveillance to date.”

CAMPAIGNERS

15%

Prof. Colin Bennett, University of Victoria

25%
RESEARCHERSEXPOSING THE INVISIBLE

A project that enables local communities to tackle
global problems by providing resources, methods
and tactics for citizen investigators

PARTNERORGANISATIONS

130,000 20

https://tinyurl.com/yb8acj6r

MORE THAN

we collaborate (or collaborated) withon adapting/using/localising Kit:

visitors to Exposing the Invisible
websites in 2019

Datos Protegidos

Media Lab (Brazil)

Asuntos del Sur

Cooperativa Sulá Batsú

Bale Bengong

TEDIC

Casa Digital

Laboratorio de Redesy Tecnologías Sociales(Lab TecnoSocial)

Data Critica

The Centre forInternet and Society

workshops, classes, panels and lectures,
including digital safety trainings at
United Nations Headquarters, Universityof Turin and European Center for
Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR)

SocialTIC
Biome Hacklab

CONTRIBUTINGAUTHORS AND EDITORSTO THE KIT IN 2019
Austria, Belarus, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Egypt,France, Germany, India, Mexico, New Zealand,Poland, Romania, Serbia, Spain, UK, USA

29

Contributing authorsand editors from17 countries

13 chapters divided into three sections

2018

What Makes an
Investigation?

How You Investigate

Introduction

Collaboration to researchand produce ‘Exposing
the Invisible: The Kit’ at
the Citizen Investigation
Kit Residency and withpartner organisations

You Are Alreadyan Investigator

Using Mapsto See
Beyondthe Obvious

Retrieving andArchiving
Informationfrom Websites

How to See
What’s Behinda Website

Away FromYour Screen,
Out in theField

Launch of the first 13 chapters ofThe Kit in April
https://kit.exposingtheinvisible.org

2019

Interviews:
the Human
Elementof Your
Investigation

How toManage Your
Sources

Supply Chainand Product
Investigations

What You Investigate

SearchSmarterby Dorking

The Kit

Extracting
Information
From Social Apps:
A case of exposed
financial data

Exploring
Connections
Between Political
Parties and Personal
Data Brokers
in the UK

Focus on translations,partnerships anddevelopment of content
for next phase of Kit(information & evidenceanalysis)
6,300 physical copiesof Kit printed fordistribution

2020

DATA DETOX KIT

10An online and printed resource that provides
practical steps to enable anyone to improvetheir digital privacy, security and wellbeing

LANGUAGES

https://tinyurl.com/y9lzdp25

5,000
AT THE GLASS ROOMIN SAN FRANCISCO

12,000Bengali
ChineseEnglishHindi
Indonesian Bahasa
ItalianNorwegianPortuguese
SpanishUkrainian

COPIES OF KIT DISTRIBUTED179,500+
online usersof theData Detox Kit

security

privacywellbeing

OUR ORGANISATIONGENDER BALANCE

58% 42%
58% of staff were female - 42% male

80% 20%80% of the senior management team
were female - 20% male

HOW WE WORK
We work within a culture of curiosity
to use creative and iterative
processes to challenge existing
narratives about the relationshipbetween technology and society.
We carry out our work with integrity,
in collaboration with partners toensure that our solutions arepractical, accessible, contextspecific and appropriate.

16 10SPOKENLANGUAGES

Arabic, English, French, German,Greek, Italian, Luxemburgish,
Maltese, Polish, Punjabi, Romanian,Russian, Spanish, Turkish, Urdu,Vietnamese

PROGRAMMINGLANGUAGESAGE

spread of employees in 201910between 39 and 69 years
between 30 and 39 years
under 30 years

1518

REACH OF TACTICAL TECH
Languages of media coverage 14 *Features in local/international media 100
Newsletter subscribers 5,000 (700 new subscribers in 2019)Social media followers 46,000 (6,000 new followers in 2019)
Website visitors 1,400,000 (from 224 different states/territories)* Bosnian, Chinese, Dutch, English, Estonian, French, German, Italian, Japanese,Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Ukrainian

TEAM INFORMATION
1 open-plan office in Berlin20+ office plants

2 floors

70 hours of internal workshops & trainings

3 meeting rooms... and 1 dog (Shiba Inu)

4 cafetières(and espresso machine)

2019 BUDGET
Expenditure: € 2,012,864
Our Funders: City of Sydney, EU, Luminate, Mozilla, OAK, SIDA