Guides
Our Exposing the Invisible guides feature topics, methods, tactics and tools that you and others can adapt and use to investigate and collaborate in your own context.
About the Guides
We develop guides and other self-learning resources about methods, tools and good practices of online and offline investigation. Here you will find a series of guides developed by the Exposing the Invisible (ETI) team as well as by our expert contributors - all based on practical experiences and tested techniques.
We also feature a selection of guides and resources form partner organisations and other reputable sources.
We invite you to explore these guides and to reach out to us with feedback and suggestions of any other great investigation resources you encounter.
Guides
Navigating Sensitive Stories: A Guide to Ethical Engagement with Vulnerable Sources
Drawing on over a decade of investigative reporting experience,
this practical guide by Stavros...
Ocean Datasets for Investigations
Learn how to identify and use Ocean datasets as a tool for
revealing the unseen or underreported...
How To Use European Air Pollution Data To Hold Companies Accountable
Journalist Olaya Argüeso Pérez shares techniques, tools, data
sources and practical tips on how...
Struck by a Drone, Verified by Humans: Methods for geolocating a Russian drone strike in Ukraine
This is a case-based guide detailing our methodology to verify a
Russian drone strike allegedly...
More than Meets the Eye: Geolocating Images Using Creativity and SunCalc
Geolocation means finding the real world location of an object,
such as the place where a...
Exposing the Invisible - The Kit
The Kit is a collaborative, self-learning resource that makes
investigative techniques and tools...
Investigate - The Manual
Launched by the Civil Forum for Asset Recovery (CiFAR) in June
2021, "Investigate - The Manual"...
Follow the Money: A digital guide for tracking corruption
Investigative reporter Paul Radu reveals his methods of tracking
corruption and organised crime...
Quick Guide to Alternatives
When you use a tool, your data land ups with the company that owns
that tool. The only way to...
The Heretic's Guide to Global Finance
Brett Scott, publisher of Heretic's Guide to Global Finance,
describes his work as a "friendly...
The Info-Activism How-To Guide
A comprehensive tool by Tactical Tech to teach activists the basics
of evidence-based activism.
FAIR Legal Guide for Investigative Journalism
Based on English law and written by British lawyer Korieh Duodu,
the guide aims at helping...
Unlocking Data from PDFs
A deep dive on scraping and parsing, reverse engineering a digital
document to make the data in...
Me & My Shadow
A Tactical Tech website that allows you to trace your “digital
shadow” - all the data you...
Visualising Information for Advocacy: The Book
Tactical Tech's free online book about how advocates and activists
use visual elements in their...
Security in-a-box
Tactical Tech resources that show you how to remain anonymous
online, how to protect your data...
Maps for Advocacy: A set of Tactical Tech tools
Created by Tactical Tech in 2008 and updated in 2010, the booklet demystifies the step-by-step...
Dealing with Trauma
A list of helpful resources addressed to civil society members
facing stress, threat and trauma...
School of Data: A series of tutorials on working with data
A project by the Open Knowledge Foundation teaching you all you
need to know about dealing with...
Domain Games: Role-playing an online identity
Guide featuring a step-by-step approach to setting up a new website
when privacy is a significant...
Behind the Data: Investigating metadata
A guide that looks at how metadata has been used to expose, protect
and verify abuses and...
Mobile Phone Security
Resources you can use to learn about phone security.
Starting Satellite Investigations
In 2006, a group of Bahraini activists used Google Earth to view
palaces and land owned by the...
Drone Survival Guide
A playful art project to inform citizens about the dangers and
capabilities of drones worldwide.
DIY Drone Shadows
A handbook, in which author James Briddle gives guidance on how to draw a drone shadow, including...
ONO Robot's Guide to Staying Safe on the Internet
A Tactical Tech series of short animations featuring the character
ONO, a friendly robot whose...
Scraping Web Data
This guide presents a series of steps that can be used to automate
the collection of online HTML...
Scraping Web Data - Sample table
A sample table related to the "Scraping web data" guide, to help
organise the way you index...
Scraper Bremen
Scraper for information about CCTV cameras in Bremen
Hacker News Spider
Copy and paste the "spider" code below into a new file, such as
`spider-hacker-news.py` and run...
Scraper for Refugee Resources in Berlin
Copy and paste the "spider" code below into a new file, such as
`spider-kreuzberg.py` and run it...
Scraping Web Data - Spider template
Copy and paste the "spider" code below into a new file, such as `spider-template.py`. Edit the...
Smart Searching with GoogleDorking
Using search engines to their full capacity to expose the unfindable.
OpenVPN over Tor (VoT)
A step-by-step guide to configure OpenVPN with Tor browser using Terminal.
Digital Resources for Citizen Investigators: Our recommendations
Many of us currently live and work in a challenging physical
isolation imposed on us by the...
Leak and Onion Soup
A guide about using Tor ("the onion router") to read, verify and
process leaked data, which might...
Decoding Data
A selections of topics, approaches and ideas for those who are
thinking of getting better at...
Verification Handbook
A guide to verifying digital content and navigating today's
(dis)information environment.
Geojournalism Toolkit
The Geojournalism Toolkit was born when a group of environmental
journalists felt a new approach...
An Idiot's Guide to Money Laundering
A tongue-in-cheek "Idiot's Guide to Money Laundering" created by
Global Witness, an organisation...
Digging into digital images: Extracting batch location data automatically
A how-to guide covering the basic steps for using open-source metadata extraction software on...
Who, what, why, where? Verification of online data
Misinformation can spread at a feverish pace and in this chapter we
will address the essential...
VPN Over Tor
Using VPN over Tor for a secure anonymous connection to the internet
Who is WHOIS?
To lookup where domain names are registered you can use a database
that stores the information of...