1. Who are we

We are reversing.works. Our team brings together technical expertise and knowledge from different fields to help unions, worker collectives, and allies understand how gig-economy apps really work.

Our mission is to hold platforms accountable. Food delivery and ride-hailing apps often hide how they use data or manage workers. By making these hidden systems visible, we ensure that labor violations cannot stay in the dark. Using reverse engineering, data analysis, and legal expertise, we uncover practices that are usually invisible to workers.

This work matters because most riders don’t know what information is being collected about them, how it is used, or how it may affect their pay and rights. By exposing these practices, we give workers and unions tools to demand fairness and better conditions.

We have carried out investigations in several EU countries, including Germany and Italy. In Italy, our research showed that Glovo violated data protection laws, creating real accountability for one of Europe’s largest gig platforms. These kinds of results prove that technical investigations can bring concrete benefits to workers.

We are currently funded by the European AI & Social Fund.

2. What Is Our Goal

Our workshops bring riders together—people working with Glovo, Wolt, UberEats, or Bolt. Facilitators from reversing.works guide the sessions, while union organizers, legal experts, or technical specialists may also join to provide support and answer questions.

The aim is to uncover what these apps do in the background. Are they tracking GPS even when you’re not working? Do they share your personal data with advertisers? Together, we investigate these questions while listening closely to riders’ own experiences of the apps.

What happens next depends on the group. For unions, the findings can serve as evidence in negotiations. For grassroots rider collectives, the workshops help build knowledge and power. With researchers, the results feed into broader documentation of platform practices.

By the end of the session, we will have a shared record of the data the apps send out—often combined with insights from riders’ own stories. These results can:

  • Feed into union reports,
  • Support advocacy campaigns,
  • Provide evidence for legal or policy debates.

Most importantly, you decide what happens with your data.

3. How We Study the Apps Together

During the workshop, we provide phones prepared for the session. You log in to your delivery app with your own login and password—just as you normally would.

With this setup, we observe together what data the app is sending:

  • Does it track your GPS even outside working hours?
  • What personal details are transmitted?
  • Does the app send data to advertisers or analytics companies?

We don’t interfere with the app or change anything. We only observe what it does—like holding a magnifying glass over its activity.

4. Our Principles

  • Anonymity: Your personal details are never shared during or after the workshop.
  • Transparency: We explain what data we collect, how, and why—no secrets.
  • Choice and control: At the end, you decide what happens with the data. It can be used for research and advocacy, or kept private.

Read more about the Glovo investigation here (link to our website) and about the goals of the current project here (link to our website). Contact us at staff@reversing.works with questions.