#spy files

Last week we published the first interactive WikiLeaks database that puts all 500+ of the Spy Files documents into a data-driven format.

THIS week, we have updated it with WikiLeaks SpyFiles4. 

You can search through by company, country, date and more. It can also be embedded into any  blog as an iFrame. We encourage others to use it as an embed in your work or just as a research tool!

Anyone who has followed Silk knows we have a strong interest in government transparency, civil liberties and corporate responsibility. Yesterday we released the Wikileaks Spy Files Silk. This is the first and only searchable interactive database of the Spy Files.

Data from wikileaks.silk.co

The Spy Files are a trove of 569 leaked documents detailing the activities and practices of companies that sell mass surveillance and communication interception technologies. Wikileaks released three batches of the Spy Files. But you can search them all only in one place - on this Silk, made by Silk data journalist Alice Corona. For example, this query shows you all the technologies that were used to target Facebook users.

Alice found that three companies - Blue Coat, Cobham and Gamma - make up 20% of all the leaked documents. There are many more surprising observations made by Alice on the Wikileaks Silk. The information is well summarized, but you can easily spend an hour or more sifting through the findings and reading the documents (there are download links pointing back to Wikileaks.org included in every page on the Silk). Of course, you can explore and filter all information on the Wikileaks Silk yourself, so you can do your own fact-finding.

All of this brings me to another key point. Generating really interesting content is a big part of our strategy at Silk for several reasons. First, it’s how we show the world the possibilities of Silk and how we engage users. Second, we consistently hear back from heavy Silk users that they got ideas for their own Silks by looking at examples from our gallery. Lastly and perhaps most importantly, creating content is something we actually do for fun to play with and learn about our product.

Original works like the one Alice did take many hours of time. But Silk makes it trivial to convert any spreadsheet into an interactive site with easy to manipulate visualizations. And that allows any Silk user to become a data journalist themselves, even if they are analyzing data from a static table in Wikipedia (such as this Silk which took a table of deaths on Everest and converted it into useful findings about percentages of nationalities killed).

Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, speaks about Spy Files. 

Mass interception of entire populations is not only a reality, it is a secret new industry spanning 25 countries

Mass interception of entire populations is not only a reality, it is a secret new industry spanning 25 countries