Hi all,
I need to send an anonymous email to our management team at work. A member of staff has been posting very abusive twitter messages to a colleague who is being bullied and I want to anonymously send screenshots to managers.
I have read that if I purchase a subscription to a VPN, set up a webmail account while logged into the VPN, and then use that email account to send the screenshots, then the source (i.e. my IP address and identity) will not be visible to my employer.
Is this true, or are there other measures I need to take before I can be 100% confident my identity will be invisible?
Your help is appreciated. I want to do the right thing but I don't want to be picked on if the management decide to back the bully.
Many thanks
First of all, let me ask you this question. Does your company have a zero-tolerance anti-bullying policy? If so, there should be an anonymous TIPS submission service provided by your company through a third party neutral source that allows you to post whatever screenshots you have. This third neutral source will then submit these bullying screenshots to the company's management. The company management will then contact this third party service to contact you. You will then only communicate with this third party company and any messages and interviews will be conducted by this company. Your managers will never know who you are. Only the third party source will. THIS IS THE STANDARD procedure for any whistleblower service. Basically, this is how it works.
If you have to setup up an anonymous account and use it through a VPN, then I highly suggest that you ask the person being bullied to do this by him or herself. To me, it sounded like the company you are working for does not have an anti-bullying policy in place, which is probably why you are having this issue of abusive bullying over twitter is considered grounds for review and possible immediate dismissal if the allegation is confirmed.
Let me tell you why I highly advice you not to get yourself involved and this is coming from someone who have had extensive experience dealing with these issues, including being a whistleblower for 2 companies and eventually being terminated, banned for life over the industry I had so loved working in. You become the black sheep just being a whistleblower.
First of all, management probably knew this is happening. You are probably not the only one that had reported the incident or had thought that through. Management should have dealt with this, but it seemed that these days bullying is an acceptable form of behaviour due to a leader of a great nation who bullies people and gets away with it free and justifies it soundly with the people who voted for him. And this is the conundrum..
Hiding behind a VPN and a secured encrypted email account like ProtonMail will get your message through to management. But accusations like this will require some authentication from the whistleblower or from someone who rats out the abuse. Unfortunately, some companies just don't care. Once they receive the complaint, they will either act on it or simply ignore it. If a company does not have a whistleblower act in place to provide secured communication through a third party; chances are your efforts will be met with little motivated action. Now, it does not mean that you should not do this.
Keep in mind the implications that you do this....
1, You need to accept that you are a whistleblower and you are ratting out your fellow co-worker and while this is a needed action to be made aware of, you also become the target of the bully. You will be getting involved in this incident.
2, Anonymous accusations will have to be met with face-face verification of the evidence provided. Managements will not act unless they interview you. There are labour laws that prevent prosecution of such individuals without physical witnesses. Otherwise, it is just hearsay. And who said that snapshot twitter messages aren't fabricated by yourself to create some sort of bullying cause to the accused?!?
3, Whistlerblowers normal fate usually end up leaving the company and your name will probably get spread out over social media. You are a party pooper and you rat people out. Don't you think you can hide via a VPN and ProtonMail. Your real name will be discovered just like I did before VPN and ProtonMail. I used dial up then through a public library, but they traced my info through the group information I provided working for that company.
I know that it is probably the right thing to do to help defend the person being bullied, but I think your job is to help the one being bullied and get him or her some proper help, contacting some agencies for advice. If you get yourself involved, you will be at the crosshairs of the bullies and in my experiences thus far, management will usually side with the bullies, because management knows that the corporate or company environment is the main cause of all that bullying. A company who doesn't tolerate bullying usually don't have people bullying period. I now work for a non-profit company who has a zero tolerance of bullying and full transparency. Meaning, if you feel bullied, just email the whole group of staff and the one who bullies usually get kicked out by the group.
