John Tye (whistleblower) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids John Tye
Personal details
Born	John Napier Tye 1975/1976 (age 49–50) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Education	Duke University (BS) Lincoln College, Oxford (BA) Yale University (JD)

John Tye is an American lawyer and former government official. He is known for being a whistleblower in 2014. A whistleblower is someone who tells the public about something they believe is wrong or illegal that a government or company is doing.

John Tye raised concerns about how the U.S. government was collecting electronic information, like phone calls and internet data, under a rule called Executive Order 12333. Later, he helped start an organization called Whistleblower Aid. This group helps other whistleblowers share their concerns safely without getting into legal trouble.

About John Tye

John Tye grew up near Boston, Massachusetts. He went to Duke University and created his own major in Adaptive and Intelligent Systems. He said he wanted to do things that would "impact real people."

After Duke, he studied at Lincoln College, Oxford in England as a Rhodes Scholar. He then researched hate groups for the Southern Poverty Law Center. He earned his law degree from Yale Law in 2006. After law school, he worked in New Orleans to help low-income families with affordable housing.

In 2011, John Tye joined the U.S. State Department. He worked as a section chief for Internet freedom. In this role, he traveled to other countries and spoke about the importance of an open internet, free from government spying. He had access to "Top Secret" information during his time there. He left the State Department in April 2014. From 2014 to 2015, he was a director at Avaaz, a global group that works for social change.

Why John Tye Became a Whistleblower

John Tye became concerned about how the U.S. government was collecting electronic information. He learned about these practices during special briefings in 2013 and 2014. These briefings were about Executive Order 12333, a rule signed by President Ronald Reagan and updated by President George W. Bush. This order allows the U.S. government to collect intelligence information from other countries.

Raising Concerns Internally

After President Barack Obama gave a speech in January 2014 about government spying, John Tye felt that changes were needed for activities under Executive Order 12333. Before leaving the State Department, he filed a complaint with the department's inspector general. He believed that the way information was being collected and stored under this order might not follow the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which protects people's privacy.

He also spoke with staff from the intelligence committees in the U.S. House and Senate. He shared his concerns with the inspector general of the National Security Agency (NSA).

Sharing Information Publicly

On July 18, 2014, The Washington Post published an article written by John Tye. In it, he explained his worries about U.S. electronic spying under Executive Order 12333. He said that Americans should be more concerned about this order than other surveillance laws.

Tye explained that Executive Order 12333 allows the government to collect both metadata (like who you called and when) and the actual content of communications (like emails or messages) from Americans. This can happen if the collection takes place outside the U.S. He pointed out that many communications between Americans might travel through or be stored on computer servers outside the U.S. This could make them vulnerable to collection under this order.

He argued that even though Americans cannot be directly "targeted" under the order, their communications can be collected "incidentally." This means if the government is investigating a foreign target, they might accidentally collect data from Americans who are communicating with that target. Tye believed this could potentially include data from billions of people using popular internet services like Gmail or Dropbox.

John Tye also noted that because Executive Order 12333 is an executive order (a rule from the president) and not a statute (a law passed by Congress), it had not been reviewed by Congress or the courts. He said that collecting information under this order does not require a warrant and does not need to be reported to Congress.

On July 23, 2014, Tye spoke at a public meeting of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. This is an independent agency that advises the president on privacy and civil liberties. He also spoke about his experience at a TEDx conference in November 2014.

John Tye has always said that he has not, and will not, release any classified information. Before his article was published, he had it reviewed by the State Department and the NSA. Both agreed that no changes were needed.

How People Reacted

On August 19, 2014, Alexander Joel, an official from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, responded to Tye's article. Joel stressed that Americans cannot be directly targeted under Executive Order 12333. He also said that the use and storage of collected data are limited by rules approved by the U.S. Attorney General.

John Tye responded that these arguments did not address the bigger questions of whose data is actually collected and how it is kept.

Ben Wizner, the main lawyer for NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, praised John Tye's actions. He noted that not every whistleblower can take the same risks that Snowden did.

Legal experts discussed what impact Tye's public statements might have on changing the rules under Executive Order 12333. Some believed that sharing information within the government's rules might not have the same impact as leaking secret documents. Others thought Tye's actions would help push for reforms.

John Tye was named one of 2014's "National Security Law Heroes" by the blog Just Security.

Whistleblower Aid Organization

In September 2017, John Tye and lawyer Mark Zaid started Whistleblower Aid. This is a legal organization designed to help whistleblowers safely share information about wrongdoing.

Whistleblower Aid is different from groups like WikiLeaks. They clearly state: "No one should ever send classified information to Whistleblower Aid." They will never help clients leak classified information. Instead, they guide whistleblowers with secret information to investigators who have security clearances. This helps expose wrongdoing without breaking the law or facing criminal charges.

The organization aims to hold the U.S. government accountable and provides free legal services to whistleblowers. They want to help whistleblowers avoid ruining their careers or being prosecuted. Whistleblower Aid does not charge clients for their services. They get money from donations and crowdsourced funding. In 2021, John Tye and Whistleblower Aid represented Frances Haugen when she became a whistleblower against Facebook.

See also

• Global surveillance disclosures (2013–present)