Resumen de Whistleblowing and data protection: the UK perspective
The phrase whistleblowing had its origins in the action of a police officer blowing a whistle to summon public help to apprehend a criminal. More recently the Oxford English Dictionary describes it as bringing an activity to a sharp conclusion as if by the blast of a whistle. In the context that we are looking at here it can be described as an individual, very often an employee, raising a concern about wrongdoing within an organisation or through an independent structure associated with it (UK Committee on Standards in Public Life); giving information, usually to the authorities, about illegal or underhand practices (Chambers Dictionary); or exposing to the press a wrongdoing or cover-up in a business or government office (US, Brewers Dictionary).
