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.
