the.com/leaker
Someone who trusts the internet with a secret more than they trust themselves.
means Someone who deliberately passes along confidential or secret information to people who aren't supposed to have it.
from Straightforward agent noun from 'leak' — turning the verb (water or secrets escaping through a crack) into 'one who does the leaking.' 'Leak' itself traces back to Old Norse/Germanic roots meaning to drip or trickle, the same watery family that gives English 'lek' in older dialects. The metaphorical jump from 'water seeping through a hole' to 'information seeping out through an indiscreet mouth or an unauthorized channel' is old and intuitive — information has been described as 'leaking out' for centuries before 'leaker' became the specific word for the person doing the leaking, a usage that surged with modern journalism's hunger for anonymous sources and whistleblowers.
- motive split
- usually ego, conscience, or spite, rarely money
- legal risk
- NDAs make leaking a firing, not just a crime
- tech reality
- metadata catches more leakers than snitches do
- industry irony
- studios now leak fake leaks to test loyalty