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Posts Tagged ‘SafeHouse’

The New Yorker Launches Anonymous Tip Box

The New Yorker has launched an anonymous online tip box called “Strongbox.” The tool is designed to allow anyone to send a document, file, image, whatever, to the New Yorker, while keeping their identity a total secret. It’s basically WikiLeaks for pretentious people. Kidding!

The Wall Street Journal has something similar called SafeHouse, but that had several security flaws. And since you never hear about it, it seems like it’s not going so well. The New Yorker recognizes that something could go awry when submitting. In a post about the tool, the magazine states, “Strongbox does not provide perfect security. Among other risks, if you share your unique code name, or if your computer is compromised, any activities, including communications through Strongbox, should be considered compromised as well.”

If you’re willing to take that risk, have at it. Start sending your cartoons of pigs at the complaint department today.

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Wall Street Journal Issues Statement on its WikiLeaks Clone SafeHouse’s Lack of Safety

FishbowlNY wrote earlier about SafeHouse, the Wall Street Journal‘s WikiLeaks clone, that has been getting some flak for not actually being like WikiLeaks at all with regard to its most important feature: anonymity. As Gawker noted, SafeHouse has this caveat in its Terms of Use: “we reserve the right to disclose any information about you… without notice…” for a whole host of reasons.

Kind of misses the whole point! This story pretty much spoiled the party of WSJ‘s entire SafeHouse announcement. In fact, the lack of protection for SafeHouse sources in many ways became a bigger story than SafeHouse. So in response, the WSJ has already issued a clarifying statement, which says this about anonymity:

There is nothing more sacred than our sources; we are committed to protecting them to the fullest extent possible under the law. Because there is no way to predict the breadth of information that might be submitted through SafeHouse, the terms of use reserve certain rights in order to provide flexibility to react to extraordinary circumstances. But as always, our number one priority is protecting our sources.

Not entirely comforting. While saying that nothing is more sacred that sources is undoubtedly a fine gesture on WSJ‘s behalf, it’s not quite the same thing as actual contractual language.

The Wall Street Journal’s WikiLeaks Clone Has Problems

The reason WikLeaks has been so successful is because people who submit documents to the site feel confident that there won’t be any repercussions against them if anything negative comes from the leak. According to Gawker, The Wall Street Journal’s WikiLeaks clone SafeHouse, seems to have missed this point. In a big way:

Unlike Wikileaks, SafeHouse includes a doozy of a caveat in itsTerms of Use:

‘Except when we have a separately negotiated confidentiality agreement… we reserve the right to disclose any information about you to law enforcement authorities or to a requesting third party, without notice, in order to comply with any applicable laws and/or requests under legal process, to operate our systems properly, to protect the property or rights of Dow Jones or any affiliated companies, and to safeguard the interests of others.’

In other words, if SafeHouse wants to, it will sell out its sources. That’s not exactly going to instill a lot of confidence in people who might want to tip the site.

 

The Wall Street Journal Launches WikiLeaks-Like Site ‘SafeHouse’

The Wall Street Journal has launched a new website in the same vein as WikiLeaks, called SafeHouse. According to a press release obtained by Poynter, the site is located on secure servers, and is designed to attract tips and information from random sources, that will be then vetted by the Journal’s staff. Like WikiLeaks, if it’s something worth publishing, it will then be broadcasted to the masses.

A statement on SafeHouse explains that any kind of file can be submitted, but obviously, the bigger the news, the better:

If you have newsworthy contracts, correspondence, emails, financial records or databases from companies, government agencies or non-profits, you can send them to us using the SafeHouse service.

Creating the site is a great move by News Corp. The New York Times - which has been debating launching a WikiLeaks clone since last January – now looks a step slow, which only lends more credibility to SafeHouse. And if it gets a big story before the Times even launches their WikiLeaks site, it might be game over.
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