Whistle blowing as a complex issue of law and ethics arises at the instance when the interest of business organizations conflict with public interest. Whistleblowers are vital especially in uncovering corporate wrong doings, fraud, or activities that are dangerous to the public. Whistle blowers are individuals who are workers or insiders of a certain company who stand to lose something or go through embarrassment if they decide to report cases of illegality, unethical and or dangerous activities in their companies. When they do so, they bring out issues in society which would otherwise not be exposed. Environmental infringement and financial wrongdoings to safety and human rights violations, it has been whistleblowers who stand to be of great significance in exposing corporate misconducts.
Prominent examples that can be referred to include the actions of Edward Snowden who leaked data on mass surveillance and Frances Haugen who shared internal Facebook documents that showed harm done by the organization's algorithms. Such characters are prepared to lose their jobs, reputation, or even their lives in an effort to get information disclosed.
The Significance of Trade Secrets Protection
Trade secrets are very important for businesses as it is part of their economic value. Not only do trade secrets include such things as a special way of producing goods or calculating something, but they also contribute to innovativeness and preserving the competitive advantage on the part of an organization. Such important information include trade secrets which are protected by laws such as the Trade Secrets Act in the United States and other countries. These laws enable companies engage in business activities without worrying that their competitors may gain access to company's valuable secrets.
Companies claim that when whistleblowers release trade information, such exposures harm the organizations through dented reputation, shift in market share, failure among others
The Legal Tightrope: Interest dorsality between public interest for the common good of the society and corporate rights for the specific company.
The laws that regulate whistleblowing as well as trade secrets also serve an as a way of protecting the public interest and corporate liberties. Most legal systems offer legal protection of whistleblowers against retaliation in case they report legal and genuine wrongdoings. For instance, the USA has the Whistleblower Protection Act and the European Union has the Whistleblower Protection Directive, which means that whistle blowers, who report breaches of EU laws, cannot be punished.
But all these are not cast ironshield. The legal recourse for whistleblowers who leak trade secrets include being charged in law if their actions can be considered as not being in the interest of the public or if they do not report such incidences through the legal means. Judges continue to be faced with the question of when membersments of the public have a right to know more than companies feel they should disclose to the public.
In such circumstances, one of the major points that might arise is whether the information which the company released has a great social value. For instance, when disclosing the trade secret proves to cause significant threat to the health or safety of the public, it will be the courts' decision to support the whistleblower. On the other hand, if the disclosure is perceived to be detrimental to the company while not having positive impact to the general public view of the company or specific executive or employee then the whistleblower will not be protected.
This involves dealing with Ethical and Legal issues.
This paper identifies that whistleblowing and trade secrets have ethical dilemmas in the individual and organizational perspectives. A whistleblower should think about what will happen to them and the general public as well as the company once they blow the whistle. The ethical practice of whistleblowing entails taking into account the costs and benefits of blowing the whistle, the whistleblower protection and legal exposure.
While organizations are faced with the challenge of protecting their trade secrets, on the other hand public interest is also served by allowing whistleblowers to act as a watchdog in organizations. Any organization that try to contain any whistleblowing activities might encounter many adversaries and legal actions from the public while on the other side, any organization that lacks adequate measures to protect its confidential information may run into lots of troubles with competitors.
Waymo v. Uber (2017)
Background: Uber has long been associated with trade secret theft as Waymo, a self-driving technology unit of Google parent Alphabet filed a litigation against them in early 2017. Waymo sued Uber relying on the fact that a former employee – Anthony Levandowski – stole thousands of documents containing information on Waymo's self-driving car technology before founding his own company that was then bought by Uber. This is despite Waymo complaining that Uber relied on these trade secrets in its self-driving car campaign.
Whistleblowing Aspect: While the main concern here was the trade secrets themselves, one could not but raise an eyebrow at some of the practices that companies are willing to engage in. Levandowski, an engineers obsessed with developing self-driving cars embarked on entrepreneurial decisions that caused him to cross legal boundaries of trade secrets and non-disclosure agreements. The case indirectly related to whistleblowing issue when former employees of Uber exposed ethical issues within the organisation.
Outcome: Uber paid Waymo $245 million in Uber shares and stock options and then Levandowski who started self-driving car unit for Uber was convicted of stealing trade secrets. All these issues presented by the case cover innovation, competition and control of proprietary knowledge.
It can now be appreciated that the phenomenon of whistleblowing is not a simple case of weighing in the protection of trade secrets. All the cases involve looking at the facts and the laws further to the effects and implications of the decision to the greater public. This tension is expected to gain a sharper edge as developing economies move to a service-based economy anchored on information and intellectual property commodities.
There will be a need to ensure that reforms have been made to make it clear to whistleblowers and businesses the rights and responsibilities that they have as well as the protections that public interest disclosures will receive and those of trade secrets. Thus, the final answer can be stated as follows: the only possible solution is to develop and maintain the culture of ethical responsibility within the organizations and have the proper legal background that will stimulate transparency and constant innovation.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.