NODE 6bdc0de7Whistleblowing on the Internet
Geoffrey Gussis <geoff@digidem.com>Tue, 27 Aug 1996 11:26:48 +0800
I'm writing a paper for my ethics class on Whistleblowing, and specifically
how it has been aided by the Internet. If anyone knows of any resources,
pointers, etc., I would greatly appreciate it. The results will be
published on-line, and I can send a copy to anyone who is interested as
well. I am interested in information covering both the private sector and
the government as well. I do know that the Federal Government has an
online BBS where you can send in information on fraud, etc.
What I have uncovered so far:
+ As far as a Lexis/Nexis search goes, I only found a few articles, and
they centered around the Tobacco Papers, and the Scientology debate.
+ I located the Whistleblowing FAQ and contacted its author, but its last
update was in 1994 and it is no longer being maitained.
+ I visited a couple of other related Internet sites (I searched using many
search engines), but they don't really have examples of using the Internet
for whistleblowing purposes.
+ I am also aware of the majority of Anonymity/Privacy sites on the
Internet, and will definitely be utilizing them in the paper.
Overall, I am quite surprised that there isn't a whistleblowing
clearinghouse on the Internet; a site sponsored by a non-profit that lists
email addresses and secure forms for sending anonymized email to those
areas of the public and private sector that deal with whistleblowing. As
the Internet is a great medium for information dissemination, and offers
significant privacy advantages, I really expected to find much more.
Is anyone else working in this area? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
Geoffrey Gussis
2L - Washington University School of Law
___________________________________________________________________
Internet Law Projects at http://www.digidem.com/legal/
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+ Businesses on the Internet (BOTI) Legal Research Initiative
+ Legal Links in Electronic Commerce and Interactive Entertainment
NODE 1d1fe4fcRe: Whistleblowing on the Internet
Adam Shostack <adam@homeport.org>Tue, 27 Aug 1996 14:23:14 +0800
Geoffrey Gussis wrote:
| Overall, I am quite surprised that there isn't a whistleblowing
| clearinghouse on the Internet; a site sponsored by a non-profit that lists
| email addresses and secure forms for sending anonymized email to those
| areas of the public and private sector that deal with whistleblowing. As
| the Internet is a great medium for information dissemination, and offers
| significant privacy advantages, I really expected to find much more.
Such a clearinghouse is what we call a fat target; something
likely to attract attention since wiretapping it could be very useful
to an organization that worried about having a whistleblower.
As such, the correct attitude towords whistleblowing is to use
an anonymous remailer, and send to interested parties. That's how the
AT&T deal that sunk the des phones and made clipper a household word
was publicized; a member of the list(?) interested party sent a
number of interesting documents through remailers to cypherpunks.
Adam
--
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once."
-Hume