The concept of whistleblowing is sacrosanct in democratic societies. But today the act of whistleblowing is both less effective as a means of checking power and more precarious for the individual who comes forward. We as a society must re-think and re-engineer whistleblowing to keep up with a world where society's power brokers in Silicon Valley and Washington, DC face little to no oversight and wield dangerous weapons against individual whistleblowers and journalists.
Psst addresses the threat to whistleblowing by shifting it from an individual pursuit to collective action. Collective action diffuses the risks associated with whistleblowing while also increasing the impact of disclosures.
The mechanism for doing so is the "Psst Safe," a secure repository where insiders can record their concerns, whether big or small, in a repository while protecting their identities. Individual deposits in the repository are vetted for authenticity and analyzed to uncover patterns among deposits. Patterns are used to create complete stories and/or legal cases; depositors are given the option to be part of the collective, always with legal and safety measures in place.
The Psst Safe is backed up by Psst Legal and Psst Story, which are run by veterans in storytelling and legal rights of whistleblowers.
The initial audience for the project are workers in Big Tech, Big AI and the intersection of tech and government. While the approach can be applied to any industry or global power structure, the Psst team is initially focusing on these areas as the juggernauts of power in the US today.
The goal is to make it much easier and safer to speak out by pairing mechanisms for safe reporting of concerns with the power and safety of the collective.
The goal is achieved by making a simple mechanism for reporting concerns (the Psst Safe) widely available to tech workers and workers at the intersection of tech and government. The Safe has levels of security (version one built by experts who developed Secure Drop for media outlets and Hush Line, the journalism tip line) including user education, encryption and a backend legal team. Initial deposits by concerned workers are encrypted; the depositor chooses whether to give access to the Psst Legal team. As deposits grow, and patterns emerge, the Psst Legal and Psst Story teams create collective stories of wrongdoing, piecing together the disparate information from each depositor. The teams are experienced in the best approach for releasing stories, either through investigative journalists, congressional oversight committees, or directly to the public.
The funding will:
a) allow Psst to design and deploy V 2.0 of the Safe in early 2025 with improved authentication and a closed-network LLM for improved pattern recognition.
b) increase awareness of the Safe among workers.
Current funding allows Psst to release its beta version of the Safe in December and conduct an initial testing phase. Testing will evaluate user preferences, matching functionality and security protocols; feedback will help shape the 2.0 release. Additionally, version 2.0 will address known challenges around authentication and pattern recognition. The Psst team is working with Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University to design an authentication system that improves verification and reduces spam, as well as to investigate deployment of an LLM for encrypted information that allows for improved pattern recognition as the number of deposits increases. Funds will be used for engineering the designed solution.
Additionally, Psst will use the funds to greatly increase awareness of the Safe among tech and government workers. Plans include paid spots on targeted podcasts, increased public relations and attendance/speaking slots at key conferences.
Psst is the brainchild of three veterans in whistleblowing support, media relations, advocacy and non-profit development. Armed with years of experience working directly with insiders in the tech world and beyond, they saw what isn’t working in the current system and came together to design a better approach–one that prioritizes collectivization, safety, storytelling and support. More information is here.
The founders of Psst are backed by a growing board that includes a legal expert in whistleblowing, a major tech whistleblower, and an aviation whistleblower. Established partners include Science & Design, creators of Hush Line, Berkman Klein, the Government Accountability Project, a host of investigative journalists, and a growing number of tech worker advocacy groups.
Psst was founded in September 2024, already received start-up funding and has been published in Newsweek. The Safe launches in mid-December.
Whistleblowing in its current state is under attack. There is growing evidence that as the government and tech companies seize more control of information, there is an incentive to reduce the ability for whistleblowers and investigative journalists to speak truth to power. It is critical that we recognize this threat and create new ways to improve the act of speaking out. The Psst team has worked with countless individual whistleblowers and recognizes how difficult it is to speak out when whistleblowing is encouraged - it is much more difficult in today’s landscape.
Without new approaches like the Psst Safe, power will not be checked. Psst Safe is the first and only independent attempt to collectivize information from insiders. Failure is not an option.
$400,000 from one grant, Silicon Valley Community Fund
$16,000 from individual investors