Abstract
Edward Snowden, a low-level private contractor to the US-based National Security Agency (NSA), breached prima facie legal and moral confidentiality/secrecy obligations by engaging in unauthorized accessing, retrieving and/or releasing of a large volume of confidential data from NSA to the press and, possibly, to foreign powers, for example China or Russia. This raises a raft of ethical issues in relation to whistleblowing, leaking and disclosure. In this entry I undertake three tasks. First (section 1), I discuss the nature of whistleblowing with a view to differentiating it from other forms of unauthorized disclosure, for example leaking. Second (section 2), I provide analyses of the moral principles of privacy and confidentiality, and differentiate these from the (arguably) non-moral principles of anonymity and secrecy (respectively). The principles of privacy and confidentiality have inherent moral weight – in a sense clarified below – and, as such, can justify non-disclosure. The same is not true of anonymity and secrecy. Rather anonymity and secrecy only have instrumental value, if and when they have value. Finally (section 3), I consider some of the arguments for and against different forms of unauthorized disclosure and do so in the context of the public’s right to know, the public’s right to security, as well as the principles of privacy and confidentiality.
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Notes
- 1.
An earlier version of the material in this section appeared in Alexandra and Miller (2010, ch. 4).
- 2.
A similar method of analysis (Elliston et al., 1985, p. 15) came up with the following definition of whistleblowing:An act of whistleblowing occurs when:1.an individual performs an action or series of actions intended to make information public;2.the information is made as a matter of public record;3.the information is about possible or actual, non-trivial wrongdoing in an organization;4.the individual who performs the action is a member of the organization.
- 3.
An earlier version of the material in this section appeared in Miller and Walsh (2015).
- 4.
I am assuming that it is a morally and legally legitimate organization. Breaching the confidentiality of the mafia may well not be a prima facie moral wrong; indeed, it may well be a prima facie moral duty.
- 5.
The FISC was established to provide judicial oversight of intelligence agencies (the NSA and FBI) seeking interception of communications of suspects.
- 6.
This is not to say that this is likely to happen. For example, new legislation in Australia might allow intelligence agencies to have access to metadata without a warrant.
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Miller, S. (2017). The Ethics of Whistleblowing, Leaking and Disclosure. In: Dover, R., Dylan, H., Goodman, M. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Security, Risk and Intelligence. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53675-4_27
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53675-4_27
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