Whistle-Blower
A whistle-blower is a non-official, often anonymous person, who openly discloses unlawful action or activity in a government, private, public, or even governmental organization, generally on behalf of the public. The act of blowing the whistle on something has so many connotations that there are a lot of laws in place to protect people who blow the whistle and make sure they don't get into legal trouble. While some people think the act of blowing the whistle gives them free rein to speak out against something they believe in, others think that once the whistle is blown and someone else writes about it or reports it, then it becomes illegal for the person to disclose the information. This means if you are engaged in a production as part of your job description, you could be in violation of federal or state law if you talk about something that could lead to illegal activities. The Whistleblower Protection Act was enacted to make sure that people do not talk about the illegal activities of a company, the illegal activities of another person working for the company, the illegal activities of any other individual with access to sensitive information, and information that would harm the general public.
There are many areas of public needs for surveillance that people can take advantage of. For instance, many companies rely on surveillance for internal purposes so they can catch bad employees. Likewise, companies rely on surveillance to catch cheaters so they can get their workers caught cheating. There are also many legitimate reasons for having surveillance, such as catching someone stealing or trying to access a secured facility. In situations like these, having a video interview with the whistle-blower gives you the best evidence because it shows the defrauder committing his crime right in front of you and it provides undeniable proof.
As stated earlier, the Whistle-Blower Protection Act is what protects whistle-blowers from getting themselves harmed. However, if the United States government is being abusive, there are some areas of the law that make things more difficult for you. One area of abuse is when government officials or employees themselves engage in the activity that the act is meant to stop. For instance, if the United States was to have a system for mandatory background checks, they could not do that if a whistle-blower was being abused by doing it. If you are a whistle-blower, it is important to keep all of your facts straight in terms of the laws that govern your activity, and you need to know how to protect yourself from any form of abuse.
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