Part 7/14:
Collaborating with Journalistic Powerhouses
Realizing the enormity of this dataset—unprecedented in its detail—the investigative team partnered with established media groups like Paper Trail Media and German journalists behind the Panama Papers. These collaborations aimed to analyze, verify, and contextualize the information, transforming data points into a global story about surveillance excesses and abuses.
Undercover Operations at the Surveillance Trade Fair
To assess how accessible and sellable this covert technology was, the team devised a daring undercover operation. Posing as buyers, two journalists attended the prestigious ISS World surveillance trade fair, a hub for technology providers and government agents—an inherently secretive environment.