Resources
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.
Countries and Regions
Since 2016, we have built an international picture of the influence industry through partnerships and collaborations with journalists, digital rights groups, civil society organisations and academics in more than 20 countries. Here you can find our case studies, regional overviews, and other location-specific resources.
Country Studies
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2024 Indian elections Series: volunteers, government data, and regulation
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…
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The Use of Personal Data in Georgian Politics
The report and interview examines how data-driven methods, previously documented by Tactical Tech, were used in the Georgian elections.
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United Kingdom: Regulating the Business of Election Campaigns
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.
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Defining Political Influence after the Russian Invasion of Ukraine
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…
- by La Asociación por los Derechos Civiles, Milena Alvarez and Manuela Giménez BautistaVisit our resource ⟶
Argentina: Digital Campaigns in the 2015 and 2017 Elections
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…
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Brazilian Elections and the Public-Private Data Trade
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.
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Canada: Data Analytics in Canadian Elections
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…
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Catalonia: Contested Data and the Catalan Independence Referendum
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…
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Chile: Voter Rolls and Geo-targeting
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…
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Colombia: Personal Data in the 2018 Legislative and Presidential Elections
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…
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Data and Elections in Chile: Update from Datos Protegidos
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…
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France: Data Violations in Recent Elections
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…
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India: Digital Platforms, Technologies and Data in the 2014 and 2019 Elections
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…
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Italy: Personal Data and Political Influence
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…
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Kenya: Data and Digital Election Campaigning
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.
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Malaysia: Voter Data in the 2018 Elections
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.
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Mexico: How Data Influenced Mexico's 2018 Election
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…
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Personal Data and the Influence Industry in Nigerian Elections
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…
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The Advent of Targeted Political Communication Outside the Scope of Disinformation in Ukraine
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…
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The Netherlands: Digital Literacy and Tactics in Dutch Politics
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…
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United Kingdom: Data and Democracy in the UK
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…
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USA: American Digital Politics and the Commercial Sector
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…
