At 17:58 28/10/2011 +0200, Alexander Thurgood wrote:
Le 28/10/11 14:49, Ian Whitfield a écrit :
I would be happy to put my DB up for
examination but I am _VERY_ protective of the
contents as it is all personal information of
the Members in my Group and I don't want that getting into the 'wrong' hands!!
If you send me the ODB file in private [...], I
can assure you it will remain confidential (I'm an attorney).
I'm always puzzled by this sort of claim. The
subjects of this personal information presumably
expect that it will remain confidential: that is,
not be distributed beyond the audience they
anticipated when they provided the
information. If it gets to you, that expectation
- that confidence - has already been
betrayed. It doesn't matter what you promise to
do or not to do with the information: if you have
it, it is no longer confidential.
Perhaps you think that confidentiality is
respected if you undertake not to pass the
information on to others. But that idea fails
too. Suppose that I ask you for the information;
following this argument, you would be justified
in passing it on to me, provided I promised also
to keep it confidential - presumably meaning that
I would not pass it further. But there is
nothing to stop me then making use of the same
exception that you have applied. Do you see
where the argument is leading? By this theory,
it is perfectly permissible for everybody on the
planet to see the information, provided they all
undertake to keep the information "confidential"
- with this new, looser, useless meaning.
When I offer someone information in confidence, I
expect that it will go no further - not even to
the recipient's lawyer, let alone someone
else's. But you are by no means alone: many
people think they can betray any secret as long
as they are assured that the next person will
behave the same way, receiving the same empty assurance.
Brian Barker
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