Submit something

We verify everything before it publishes. If it holds up, it goes on the site. If it does not, we will tell you specifically what we could not confirm.

Before you send anything, read this

Anonymous does not mean untraceable.

If you submit without your name, we will not know who you are. That is not the same as nobody being able to find out. We want you to understand the difference before you decide what to send.

Things that can identify you even when you leave the name field blank:

• Your IP address. Our code does not record it. But our host, Netlify, sees every connection to this site and keeps access logs containing visitor IP addresses for up to 30 days. On our plan, function logs are retained for 7 days. We cannot turn either off. If a court ordered those logs, they would exist. This is true of essentially every website you visit, and we would rather tell you than let you assume otherwise.
• Photo metadata. Pictures from a phone routinely embed GPS coordinates, the device model, and the exact time. We strip this on upload, but strip it yourself first.
• Document metadata. Word files and PDFs commonly carry the author's name, their organization, edit history, and sometimes deleted text still recoverable in the file. Convert to a clean format or retype the relevant part.
• Scanned or printed documents. Many color printers embed nearly invisible tracking dots identifying the specific machine and time. This is a real and long-standing practice.
• Who else could have sent it. If four people had access to that memo, you are one of four. This is how most sources are identified, and no technology fixes it.
• How you write. Distinctive phrasing is identifying, especially in a small workplace.

Protect yourself:

• Do not use a work computer, work phone, work email, or work network.
• Do not send it from anywhere you would be seen sending it.
• Strip metadata before uploading.
• Consider whether the information is available from a public source you could point us to instead of sending the document itself. Often it is.

What we can and cannot promise

We can promise: we will not publish your name without asking you first. We minimize what we log. We strip metadata from every file on upload. We will not sell, share, or trade your information. We delete submissions after 90 days, and we delete your contact details sooner than that once a case is closed, unless you asked to stay reachable.

We cannot promise: that we can protect your identity from a court order.

We are going to be blunt about this because you deserve it. This site is one person, not a news organization. We do not have lawyers on retainer, we do not have a legal defense fund, and we do not have the infrastructure that established outlets use to protect sources.

We also cannot make our host forget you connected. Our host retains connection logs we do not control and cannot disable. We can refuse to record your IP address in our own system, and we do. That is the limit of what we can do.

If disclosing what you have would cost you your job, your safety, or your freedom, please do not send it to us yet. Take it to an established news organization with source protection, or to a lawyer, or to the appropriate inspector general or ethics office. We would rather lose the story than get you hurt.

We hope to build better infrastructure for this. We do not have it today, and we are not going to pretend otherwise.

How sensitive is this?

Choose one below. It changes how we handle what you send.

• Routine. Public information. A vote, a public meeting, a published document, something anyone could look up. No risk to you.
• Careful. Not secret, but you would rather not be publicly associated with sending it. A local pattern, a workplace observation, something that would make things awkward.
• High risk. Non-public information where disclosure could cost you your job or worse. We do not accept these submissions. Read why and where to take it instead before you send anything.

Send it

Nothing below is required except the subject and what you found. Name and email are optional, and blank is the default.

What happens next

1. We read it.
2. We try to verify it at the source. If we can reach you, we may ask questions.
3. If it verifies, it publishes, credited how you asked.
4. If it does not verify, we tell you what was missing. Sometimes it goes on our pending list rather than getting dropped.
5. We aim to respond within three weeks.

What we cannot use: anything we cannot trace to a record. Rumors and secondhand accounts do not clear our bar no matter how confident the person is. That includes yours, and we will not be rude about saying so.

We are more interested in a boring document from a county agenda packet than in the most dramatic story nobody can prove.

How we check what you send is on our how we verify page.