Secrecy

Secrecy is the practice of hiding information from others. That which is kept hidden is known as the secret. Secrecy is often controversial. Many people claim that, at least in some situations, it is better for everyone if everyone knows all the facts?there should be no secrets. Closely allied?perhaps synonymous?notions of confidentiality and privacy are often considered virtues (One should keep confidences and respect privacy.)

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Secrecy is built into biology. One reason for sexual reproduction and speciation may be to allow members of a species to share genetic improvements without their becoming available to competitors. Animals, including humans (in some cases), generally endeavor to conceal the location of their den or nest from predators. (In practice, finding a human is often not difficult, especially with the aid of telephone directories, private eyes, etc. ) Humans attempt to consciously conceal aspects of themselves from others, due to, for example, shame or fear of rejection, loss of acceptance, loss of employment, or other negative repurcussion. On a deeper level, humans attempt to conceal aspects of their own self which they are not capable of incorporating psychologically into their conscious being. Families sometimes maintain "family secrets", using a mutually agreed-upon construct (an official family story) to never discuss disagreeable issues concerning the family, either within the family or with those outside the family. Agreement to maintain the secret is often coerced through the use of such tactics as "shaming" and reference to family honour. On occasion, the information may be something innocent such as a recipe.

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Confidentiality: Confidentiality has been defined by the International Standards Organization (ISO) as "ensuring that information is accessible only to those authorized to have access" and is one of the cornerstones of Information security. Confidentiality is one of the design goals for many cryptosystems, made poss...

Privacy: Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to stop information about themselves from becoming known to people other than those they choose to give the information to. Privacy is sometimes related to anonymity although it is often most highly valued by people who are publicly known. Privacy c...