Exposing the Invisible - The Kit

"Investigation is a mindset. Get started."



This kit is designed to be a guide to investigation, offering techniques and tools used by experienced investigators to collect and verify information, build evidence, and create a better understanding of issues without losing sight of ethical or safety considerations. It was developed by Exposing the Invisible, an initiative of Tactical Tech that seeks to inspire a new generation of people committed to transparency and accountability (see Related Summaries, below, for more information on the project). The kit covers a variety of investigative techniques including, for example, tools to access websites that have been removed from the internet, tools to discover content that does not appear in search engines, or data from videos and images that would otherwise remain invisible. It offers ideas on how to approach investigations into companies, how to use maps to investigate places and events, and how to prepare for field research. It also offers tips on talking to people and observing places, assessing risks, collecting and using information safely and ethically, and making sure that those doing the investigating and others involved can stay safe.

As explained in the kit, "We want to help people develop the ability to question information that is false, find information when it is scarce and filter information when it becomes overwhelming. We see this set of skills as a way to counter the suppression of opinions, bypass censorship, combat excessive secrecy and increase transparency so that people can rely on facts rather than opinions and assumptions. We all need the ability to assess the weight and seriousness of the narratives that are shaping our decisions and our sense of justice, and we should all be capable of differentiating between information that is misleading and information that we can rely on."



The content was developed collectively by a group of researchers, activists, journalists, developers, artists, and others interested in sharing knowledge on how to conduct investigations using a wide range of skills, tools, and techniques.



The kit is available online or as a more condensed version in PDF format. The online kit contains the following sections:



Getting Started - offers an understanding of what the kit is about and what it means to start an investigation.

• The Kit: provides an introduction to the kit for those who believe in the power of information as evidence.
• You Are Already an Investigator: looks at what it means to be an investigator and seeks to show readers how to move from curiosity to investigation to action.
• Safety First!: explores how to stay digitally and physically safe and aware of potential risks at all times by adopting some basic good practices and tools to keep journalists, their sources, and their evidence protected.

Investigation Essentials - provides some basics of investigation, such as what makes good evidence, how to evaluate it, and how to do fact-checking.

• What Makes an Investigation: describes the most important elements of an investigation - what makes good evidence, how to develop a strong documentation process, the value of verification, and the key to a safe start.
• Evaluating Evidence and Information Sources: examines how to analyse and verify information, as well as how to evaluate information sources to be able to assess the reliability of findings.
• Get Your Facts Straight: The Basics of Fact-Checking: looks at what it means to fact-check every piece of information one finds and intends to use.
• Navigating Libraries and Archives for Investigations: details how to use local or digital libraries and archives more efficiently and takes an in-depth look into their possibilities and resources.
• Investigation is Collaboration: How to Make It Work: seeks to assist in planning, organising, and running a collaboration with investigators, sources, and others in order to make the most out of one's own skills as well as the expertise of others on a team.

Investigation Methods - offers an understanding of the key techniques to use in an investigation, whether one wants to apply advanced internet searches, recover deleted online content, use maps to verify information, or more.

• OSINT - Diving into an 'Ocean' of Information: looks at how combining different openly available information sources can lead to meaningful results in an investigation, using what is known as open source intelligence.
• Search Smarter by Dorking: discusses how to support an investigation with advanced internet searches by "dorking" across different search engines.
• Retrieving and Archiving Information from Websites: focuses on how to find and retrieve historical and "lost" information from websites to serve as evidence that something existed online.
• How to See What's Behind a Website: covers tools and techniques to investigate the ownership of websites and uncover hidden information online.
• Using Maps to See Beyond the Obvious: explores how to use maps, geographic data, and satellite imagery to find and visualise information.
• Data Acquisition for Beginners: offers a how-to guide on converting data into a format more easily analysed by computer programmes.
• Geolocation Methods: A Step-by-Step Guide: explains how to geolocate photos and videos, moving from basic to more advanced techniques and skills.

In the Field - emphasises that journalists need to make sure they are effective and safe in the field, whether they are collecting samples or talking to people.

• Away From Your Screen, Out in the Field: looks at what it takes to plan, run, and evaluate field investigations safely and effectively.
• Interviews: The Human Element of Your Investigation: discusses the techniques, skills, and good practices one needs to safely identify, interview, and maintain contact with people who can provide evidence for investigations.
• How to Manage Your Sources: focuses on how to develop and maintain human sources to enrich investigations.
• Bio-investigations in the Field: introduces the concepts and practices of biological investigations, including the collection and analysis of samples from the field.
• Gathering Visual Evidence: examines how to identify, record, and represent visual evidence for documentation and research.

Diving Deeper - seeks to help journalists explore topics and case studies or find inspiration to start their own investigation. Understanding more about what one is investigating helps one search for the right tools, techniques, and data sources to answer questions.

• Supply Chain and Product Investigations: provides an introduction to supply chain investigations, including an overview of the main tools, techniques, data resources, and essential precautions to take.
• Signs, Symbols and Other Visual Clues: describes how to investigate or aid an investigation by exploring visual signs or symbols, especially in cases where very little direct information is visible, available, or accessible.
• What's in a Company?: looks at how to start researching companies by mapping their business ownership and connections.
• Thinking Critically About Maps: Researching, Resisting and Re-imagining the World: offers a case-based guide on how to critically "read" and use maps for investigation, resistance, and more.
• Investigating Climate Change Adaptation: explores the possible pathways for investigating climate disasters and how - or whether - communities can adapt to them.

Communicating Investigations - shares strategies for narrating the investigation results.

• All the World's a Story: Tales From Invisible Populations: offers a case-based article, written from a first-person account, that is a storyteller's perspective on how to expose urgent global issues that affect distant, sometimes "invisible" communities by gaining access and trust to understand, document, and share their real stories.
• Eight Breakable Rules of Investigative Writing: looks at the eight general "rules" of writing - be it for news articles, features, or even long-form investigative stories - and why they make a lot of sense in most cases. It also looks at when it makes sense to break these very same rules.
• The Making of an Anti-biometric Mass Surveillance Campaign: describes a series of actions carried out by a community of activists during an 18-month campaign against a new mass surveillance project in the city of Belgrade, Serbia. Not only did they manage to raise awareness about the problem, but they also engaged citizens in joining the movement.

Cases - highlights case studies of how investigators conducted their investigations.

Some of the kit's guides have been turned into workshop curricula that are published here. Like the kit, the curricula content has a Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0 license. The curricula is available for anyone to take, use, and adapt when conducting workshops in their context.

Click here for the English version of the full online Kit.



Click here for the French version of the full online Kit.



Click here for the Portuguese version of the full online Kit.



Click here for the Spanish version of the full online Kit.



Click here for a shortened English version of the Kit in PDF format.