If you want to safely communicate with us and send us sensitive information — be it a document, a message, a tip, or a file — you're in the right place. Your anonymity is only protected if you follow these instructions. Please read carefully.

At VICE Media we use the whistleblower submission system SecureDrop to allow people like you to submit documents and files, as well as to exchange messages in a secure and anonymous way with the journalists and reporters across all our publications.

Even we don't know who you are — unless you tell us — thanks to the encryption technology provided by SecureDrop.

For each of the following steps it's recommended that you use a public WiFi network, like a cafe or public library, instead of a frequently used network like your home or work which could be tied back to your identity.

Download and install the Tor Browser from https://www.torproject.org. This will allow you to visit our SecureDrop page, which operates as a Tor "hidden service" and is not accessible via standard internet browsers.
To access our SecureDrop page, open the Tor Browser and copy and paste this into the address bar: a2c6mmacrmxtaspbolytfxm6q2zq7svtkuaog5xetbcxr3mpy4pmomid.onion
Follow the instructions to send us information. When you make your first submission, you will receive a unique codename. Memorize it. If you write it down, be sure to destroy the copy as soon as you’ve committed it to memory. Use your codename to sign back in to our source page, check for responses from our journalists, and upload additional materials.
Do not discuss or make any mention of being a whistleblower, Tor, or SecureDrop to anyone until you are ready.

Again, please do not access our SecureDrop from your home or office. Use a device you control and trust, and not your employer's hardware. For better security and privacy, consider using the Tails operating system.

Our SecureDrop servers are under the physical control of Vice. They don't exist in the cloud or a co-location, i.e. the servers are NOT under the control of a third-party.

We don't ask or require you to provide any personally identifying information when you use SecureDrop.

SecureDrop does not record your IP address, information about your browser, computer, or operating system.

The SecureDrop server will only store the date and time of the newest message sent from each source. Once you send a new message, the time and date of your previous message is automatically deleted.

Journalists decrypt and read each message on a computer that has never and will never be connected to the internet. They are also encouraged to delete messages from the server on a regular basis. The date and time of any message will be securely deleted from the server when the message is deleted.

Please keep in mind that the actual messages you send and receive through SecureDrop may include personally identifying information. For this reason, once you read a journalist's message, we recommend you delete it. It will then be securely deleted from the file system.

Also, please note that when you submit certain types of files through SecureDrop, you may be sending us metadata associated with that file. For example, if you submit a photo through SecureDrop in JPEG format, the file may include information about the date, time, and GPS location of where it was taken, and the type of device used to take the photo. Similarly, if you submit a Word file — .doc or .docx — through SecureDrop, it may include the identity of the document's author, the author's operating system, GPS data about the author's location, and the date and time when the document was created.

Our policy is to scrub metadata from the files we receive through SecureDrop before publication. If you don't want to send us metadata, please use the Metadata Anonymization Toolkit to scrub the file before you submit it.

SecureDrop is an open-source project created and maintained by the Freedom of the Press Foundation.