Expanding Anonymous Tipping

Expanding Anonymous Tipping

WIDELY EXPANDING ANONYMOUS TIPPING TECHNOLOGY DEPLOYMENT, OPERATION, AND TRUSTWORTHINESS TO COMBAT CORRUPTION IN EASTERN AND SOUTHERN EUROPE

The Expanding Anonymous Tipping (EAT) Project was set up to expand the user base for secure online dropboxes, particularly within private enterprises and public institutions.

EAT was a two-year project, which concluded in January 2021. It was developed by civil society organisations from a group of countries on the EU’s southern and eastern borders that have the highest levels of corruption in Europe, according to Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index. The Project was funded by the European Commission and you can read the final report in English and Spanish.



EAT offered private and public sector organisations a secure online dropbox provided by GlobaLeaks. Beneficiary organisations could choose between three different submission models: MODEL A in which any submitted disclosures would be sent solely to an officer of the beneficiary organisation; MODEL B, which also involved the local EAT partner who would be notified of the submission along with the beneficiary. Finally, MODEL C was an external, parallel reporting channel associated with a media organisation.

In all cases, dropbox submissions could always be made anonymously no matter which model was chosen.

All three models of dropbox were set up over the course of the Project. Further detail about the GlobaLeaks instances set up for EAT is available here.


About the project

The Expanding Anonymous Tipping (EAT) Project was set up with the aim of extending the user base for secure online dropboxes, particularly among private enterprises and public institutions within 11 southern and eastern EU Member States.

The Project focused on those EU member states which scored most poorly on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index. These EU member states also had low levels of whistleblower protection, as measured by EAT partner Blueprint for Free Speech. These are the countries with the most to gain from the deployment of anonymous tipping technologies.

Nine partner organisations were involved in the Project, which ran from January 2018 to January 2021. GlobaLeaks was the EAT Project dropbox provider. Beneficiary organisations could choose between three different submission models. A handbook was prepared to assist new dropbox operators.

The GlobaLeaks dropboxes used for the EAT Project had custom questionnaires, translated into multiple languages. Work was conducted to integrate an easy-to-access anonymous chat facility with Ricochet Refresh. Functionality to enable downloading of selected metadata for analysis was added to the GlobaLeaks platform for the purposes of EAT and is now available to all running the current version of the software (version 4 onwards).

The legal framework around whistleblowing evolved over the course of the project thanks to the passage of EU Directive 2019/1937 (the EU Whistleblowing Directive). The EAT Project produced tools and other materials to assist the effective transposition of the Directive into national law. Partner organisations were involved in national debates about the implementation of the Directive in many EAT Project countries.

The EAT Project was funded by the European Commission. The final report has been published in English and Spanish and we have also produced a lessons learned document. A number of events and presentations were held over the lifetime of the project.


GlobaLeaks


EAT dropbox instances are provided by GlobaLeaks.

GlobaLeaks is an open source and free software that allows the creation of secure and easy-to-use whistleblowing platforms.

Whistleblowing can be secure and easy

GlobaLeaks is designed to be user-friendly and customisable, while protecting the security of a whistleblower and their submissions by default.

Many use cases, one software framework 

More than 300 projects use GlobaLeaks worldwide. The list of adopting organisations is vast and includes independent media organisations, activists, public agencies, corporations and more.

Open source

This whistleblowng software is free and open source and uses the AGPL license. It is empowered by an open community of users and volunteers who work together to constantly improve the software.

Who uses GlobaLeaks? 


Public Institutions

Private Sector