In this guide, The Signals Network addresses legal questions and issues that may be helpful to tech workers before, during, and after deciding to speak out. If early access to any of this information prevents even one worker from making an unnecessary error, the guide will have done its job.
If you would like to contribute to this guide, please reach out to [email protected]. Everything included in this Handbook can be reposted and repurposed freely with proper attribution (CC BY-SA 4.0).
No matter what reason you had for visiting this site, you should know there is a whole community of people out there, including other whistleblowers, lawyers, journalists, non-profit organizations, unions, advocates, and many others who for decades have been dealing with the sensitive process of bringing public interest information to light and holding powerful interests accountable.
The Signals Network, the 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that compiled these legal considerations, is one of these actors. The Signals Network enables whistleblowers and international journalists to work seamlessly together to hold powerful interests accountable.
The Signals Network operates in 12 countries (US and Europe) where, as of September 2021, we are actively supporting three dozen selected whistleblowers who have provided information on the most important media stories of our time, including malfeasance by tech companies, #MeToo, corruption, tax evasion, bribery, online political propaganda, health hazards, governments’ human rights violations and COVID-19, to media outlets ranging from The New York Times, The Guardian, The New Yorker, BBC, and NPR to Der Spiegel and Radio France. Already, we have coordinated the publication of three major investigations through media in the US and across Europe (Die Zeit, El Mundo, Miami Herald) that reached hundreds of millions of readers.
As you read these legal considerations, remember that there is no one right way to speak out. This section covers some key information to be aware of based on the experience of past and current whistleblowers and the people who helped them. This handbook doesn’t and is not intended to provide specific legal advice, and the considerations discussed herein are not universally applicable. This is not a roadmap to bring the whistleblowing path to zero risk. “Whistleblowing is inherently trouble,” as Ben Wizner, Director of the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project puts it. We all have different levels of risk tolerance, a unique personal situation, and different goals regarding the impact of our actions. Whistleblowing can be a long and life-defining journey and it is important to know what your life may hold in the coming months and years and who you need to have on your side.
This handbook is meant to help you make informed decisions, to give a balanced and concrete overview of the possibilities and pathways, and to remove some of the uncertainty that so many former whistleblowers experienced in order to build your own overall strategy.
We are deeply grateful to those who spent countless hours speaking to us and reviewing this section, especially Leah Judge (Constantine & Cannon LLP), Mary Inman (Constantine & Cannon LLP), Tom Devine (Government Accountability Project), Erika Cheung (Theranos whistleblower), Tyler Shultz (Theranos whistleblower), Ifeoma Ozoma (Pinterest whistleblower), Jack Poulson (Tech Inquiry), Christopher Wylie (Cambridge Analytica whistleblower), Meredith Whittaker (AI Now), Stephen Kohn (Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto, LLP), Daniel Gross (Labor Law for the Rank & Filer), Wes McEnary (CODE-CWA), William Fitzgerald (The Worker Agency), Ben Wizner (ACLU), Ashley Kissinger (Ballard Spahr LLP), Peter Rukin (Rukin Hyland Riggin LLP), and Nick Hanlon (CODE-CWA).
Whatever your decision, know that you are alone neither at this pivotal point nor throughout the process.
If you want to learn more about our work, you can reach out: [email protected].
We Are
Delphine Halgand-Mishra
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Delphine Halgand-Mishra leads the Whistleblower Protection Program and the media partnerships across 12 countries at The Signals Network. She is a Shuttleworth Foundation fellow and a CIGI senior fellow as an expert on press freedom and regulatory frameworks for platforms.
She previously served for six years as Reporters Without Borders’ North America Director, advocating for journalists, bloggers, and media rights worldwide. Delphine regularly appears on American and foreign media, and gives lectures and conferences at US universities on issues of press freedom violations. In May 2017, she received the 2017 James W. Foley American Hostage Freedom Award for her work assisting American journalists detained abroad.
Ben Grazda
Project Manager
Ben Grazda previously served as the Student Lead for the London School of Economics’ Maryam Forum Co-Lab on Democracy and Disinformation. Before joining the LSE, he spent four years working for international humanitarian organizations in Kenya, Nigeria, Iraq, and Syria. Prior to that, he worked at the US Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Committee on Rules and Administration. He has also worked as a communications assistant at Sisi ni Amani, a local NGO in Kenya that worked to combat disinformation over SMS during the country’s 2013 election, and as a researcher at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars focusing on US budget policy.
Disclaimer
The Signals Network does not request, encourage, or counsel potential whistleblowers to act unlawfully. This section covers some key information to consider based on the experiences of whistleblowers who have been through this before and the people who helped them. This section doesn’t offer legal advice, and potential whistleblowers are encouraged to consult with counsel about their particular situation.
Statement of transparency
This entire project is worthless if the tech workers who come to it cannot trust where the information is from, who is behind its creation, and who manages the site. For that reason, I have identified every organization and individual who has been instrumental in its development.
The time and resources required to put together the Handbook were funded by Omidyar Network. This is a wholly independent project owned and managed by me. No identifying data will ever be collected or shared about who accesses this site — with anyone. That said, I do NOT advise accessing this from a company device. Your employer can, and will likely, track visits to a resource like this Handbook.
You can find a list of the data WordPress automatically collects about site visits here.
— Ifeoma Ozoma, Founder of Earthseed, Creator of the Tech Worker Handbook