What You Need to Know
Do not share your report within your organization or with others wherever possible. You want to keep your disclosure as confidential as possible so it is best to share with as few, if any, other people at all. The more who hear about your disclosure, the more points of vulnerability you have. Family members who are aware of your reporting should also be advised not to share any comments on the topic with anyone.
Whenever you visit the OffRecord website...whenever you do any research regarding your case...whenever you submit any information to OffRecord...ALWAYS ensure you are doing so through a secure, encrypted browser. This prevents others who may track websites from knowing where you are coming from and finding identifying information about who you may be. We simply suggest this as to further protect your identity. The Tor Project browser is one such secure browser which is free. You download it here: www.torproject.org
What if I Choose to Mail my Forms?
You may also prefer to mail us your forms instead of sending them through the internet. This is another approach you may opt to use to get us your information, though all avenues have some risk. It is difficult for us to ascertain which means is the safest as our government or others who want to spy can tap into all systems, so we will leave that decision to you. Our address if you choose to print the forms, attach any evidence you care to share and mail them to us is:
OffRecord
Attn: Ted Alexander
603 Nautilus Street
La Jolla, California 92037
Should you Send Information Over the Internet?
When submitting your form over the internet, only do so over a public or personal computer or other device outside of work hours. Sending your information through a public computer such as a public library can be a useful way to distance yourself from an identifiable piece of hardware that is in your possession. It would be in appropriate for your office or others would try to identify you for simply doing the right thing and reporting fraud through your personal computer; however, when money andd careers are at stake there is no telling how otheres may respond. And our responsibilty is to coach to on the most optimal wasy to protect your identity, career and reputation. If you do choose to use a personal computer (or even if it belongs to someone else) we suggest you consider working through a free Tor Project browser (www.torproject.org). You may also want to consider going to a Starbucks or related community wifi network to fill out your form, so to further ensure there is no way to identify what regional network you coming from. Even if you use a secure browser tool such as Tor Project, it is possible your computer IP address could be identified with your home network. Therefore public networks are slightly less identifiable than a personal home network.
Of course never use your work environment to submit your report or to do any work or research regarding your case in that environment. It is best to use a phone not associated with your office, or potentially, not associated with you at all. The more you can create distance from yourself, even in the process of submitting data to OffRecord, the better. Once we validate you have a worthy case and agree to work with one another, we will likely destroy what we do not believe we need to keep on hand - except for evidence we will be submitting to an attorney to represent you in your case. And we will in general prefer to simply meet face to face. There is no need for us to have any identifiable information about you - including your name, way to communicate with you or where to live - except as you see fit. We will however, always make sure you can find, communicate and reach us to the best of our ability. Note also that we will always look to minimize all information which you choose to share with us as to help prevent that we maintain any evidence on hand from being exposed, in the rare case in which we are subpoenaed. Whatever we do have, we will look to pass to the appropriate attorney as soon as we possibly can, keeping no copies or associated information where we can possibly manange not too.
Creating a Temporary Email Address
As for email addresses, you may want to quickly create a new one specifically for communication with OffRecord. You can create on here at www.Gmail.com. An example gmail account might be JohnOffRecord@gmail.com. Come up with an address which makes it difficult to associate with you - not a name, nickname or pet name that may be connected to your identity. You must however check it regularly if this is our primary connection link - and again, it is important that you are sensitive to not using work facilities to check this email address. It is also worth noting that Google (the owner of Gmail), like many of America's technology companies, have been under significant media scrutiny, as there are claims that they and many technology companies may be giving-in to Federal Government and their related crony's pressure to give more access and data to the government about "We the People" are doing -- something many people in a free society such as America feel is a violation of their rights and personal freedoms --- no matter how much the government claims to want to protect "us"...however, while some of this may be unfounded, the range and reach of NSA tapping is truly difficult to ascertain. Neither side will confirm such. Regardless, you must exercise your own judgement on what you choose to use as medium of communication to OffRecord, and creating a temporary email address may be one effective means you choose to utilize.
Security Tips
- Never use a work computer, phone or related network.
- Work through a secure browser such as www.TorProject.org
- Share information about your case with no one, where ever possible. Even family members can expand the level of exposure and risk.
- If someone comments about the case or wants to sit and gossip about what they have heard, it is best to not partake in any of those conversations where possible to and ensure you choose all of your words and reactions carefully. Attempt to step back from the topic casually.
- Coach your family, if they are aware of your case at all, to speak to no one about it.
- Be extremely careful what networks you choose to communicate through.
- Consider creating a new email account (www.gmail.com) and potentially getting a completely separate prepaid phone account, utilized only for dialogues on your case. Consider changing these as often as it feels appropriate to you, while keeping OffRecord informed of how to communicate with you.
- After you have submitted your report and we have signe a contract to work with one another, we will aim to limit what data we share electronically and will attempt to use other mediums which are the most secure - whether that be meeting face to face, sending through mail, or through a drop box. Once we determine that a particular document or correspondence will not be used as evidence and submitted to lawyers under "attorney-client privilege," we will probably destroy it if possible. There is no need to keep excessive, unnecessary documentation regarding the case. For info that we do submit in a package to an attorney, once one is selected, and share with the attorney, that info should be protected under "attorney client privilege" and will not be subpoenable.
- When in doubt, wait until you are comfortable. Do not do anything rushed or questionable. Slowing down is advisable over moving too quickly when security is at question. You can ask us about how you are approaching things, and there is a Quick Question tab on the top righthand side of our website homepage for that purpose. But again, when you go to type a Quick Question, do so through the Tor Project browser, and know that no system, including ours, is bullet proof and creates risk. But OffRecord will always do the best it can to protect your identity and coach you in ways to limit your exposure and minimize the risks. But it is always the right time, to do the right thing.