General term for a person who provides information, often in journalism, research, or investigation contexts.
The reporter received evidence of whistleblowing from an informant.
Information Provider
Computing term for an entity or system that supplies data or services, often in network or database contexts.
The police located the suspect thanks to a tip from an anonymous informer.
In this system, the Information Provider updates the data periodically.
Compound of 情報 (information) + 提供者 (provider). The exact historical derivation is uncertain, but the word follows standard Sino-Japanese compounding patterns.