What is a Whistleblower?
“If you see something, say something,” goes the common adage. Enter whistleblowers, who both “see” and “say”. A simple way to answer what is a whistleblower is: an employee-type insider who raises a red flag about serious problems, like a law or regulatory violation, gross mismanagement, a big waste of funds, abuse of authority, or a risk to public health or safety. If you’re still asking what is a whistleblower, think of someone with direct, on-the-job knowledge who speaks up because the issue matters to the public. Many reports involve fraud, safety, consumer protection, or environmental harm.
The good news is, there are many laws that help clarify what is a whistleblower and what protections apply.
What is an Internal Versus External Whistleblower?
Internal whistleblowing stays inside the organization—think telling a manager, HR, compliance, or using an internal hotline. Someone you work with will report an issue to someone else within the same organization. Companies usually spell out how this works in a whistleblowing policy, and following that process helps the report get handled well. Many companies prefer internal whistleblowing because it enables faster fixes given it’s more streamlined in nature. Company policies should explain how internal whistleblowing is protected and tracked so there is internal awareness across teams.
External whistleblowing goes outside, like regulators, lawmakers, the media, or watchdog groups. These whistleblowers report things that fall within the scope of whatever organization they report to, like if they want to make a safety complaint. The key is reporting to the right place—for example, health and safety issues to the appropriate safety authority. With external whistleblowing, people will try to resolve concerns internally first, and only go external if nothing changes or if they face retaliation. Both internal whistleblowing and external whistleblowing routes are valid, as the best choice truly just depends on the situation.
A famous external whistleblowing example is the biotech company, Theranos. Here, whistleblowers claimed corporate fraud and ethical concerns. One whistleblower Tyler Shulz, for instance, said their claims to be able to run hundreds of different medical tests off one drop of blood were untrue, their technology was unreliable, and that they were quietly using commercial lab equipment for most testing without saying so. “If something feels wrong, it probably is,” Tyler commented.
What Other Kinds of Whistleblowers Are There?
Just a few include: a current employee who spots an on-the-job issue, an anonymous whistleblower who shares concerns without revealing who they are, a third-party witness like a vendor, a former employee who learns of issues after having left a job and chooses to report on them, or an environmental whistleblower who chooses to flag things like illegal dumping. There is also now cyber whistleblowing, around data security.
What Laws Protect Whistleblowers?
Sharing evidence of wrongdoing is a protected activity in many settings. It’s not a crime to report serious concerns. Since the 1907s, U.S. whistleblower laws have aimed to encourage disclosures about things like financial fraud, public health and safety, consumer protection, and environmental risks.
Some laws (for example, the False Claims Act or Dodd-Frank) may (although uncommon) pay a percentage of recovered funds to qualified reporters.
Also making waves currently is the bipartisan legislation, the AI Whistleblower Protection Act. This protects tech workers choosing to expose what they believe to be an AI issue regarding security flaws, risks to public health or safety, or potential violations. This Act, as of October 2025, has been introduced in the U.S Senate and House.
What is the Whistleblower Protection Act?
The Whistleblower Protection Act protects federal employees who disclose evidence of wrongdoing. Under the whistleblower protection act, raising serious concerns is a legally protected right versus something to get in trouble for. This Act prohibits retaliation for qualifying disclosures. Ethics & compliance training can help educate employees on how the Whistleblower Protection Act applies in practice.
How Does Whistleblower Software Offer Protection?
A modern, secure whistleblowing solution should be trusted, simple to use, and quick to deploy. It should offer anonymous, multilingual reporting for employees and third parties, and gives compliance teams no-code tools, real-time case tracking, and full documentation ability.
A great design promotes a speak-up culture and provides visibility and control across the process. It also helps organizations comply with global requirements.
The bottom line is when internal channels are credible and easy to use, most people try to solve problems internally first. This supports early corrective action and helps prevent retaliation. This way, whistleblowing becomes something supported by an organization’s culture.
