I have been thinking about confidentiality.
A confidentiality agreement, even if it is only oral and not a legally signed document, is similar to a Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA) between two parties. There are standard clauses (what cannot be disclosed to a third party) and standard exceptions (what can be disclosed and when) . The usual exceptions are when the information given to a recipient is already in the public domain or when the government demands for the information then this demand overrides the NDA.
This post is about confidentiality of the non legal variety, one that involves two individuals. Specifically, to what extent is a person bound to not reveal what was told to him by another person in confidence. Including what is told by an individual to a priest during confession or by a person to his lawyer or doctor.
I started to google today and opened a bunch of relevant links. But I stopped. I wanted to express my thought before it was affected by what I read about the stance of the church or the ethics committees.
My post is about what I feel should be confidential and what need not be.
A conversation can be divided into 2 parts: (a) that is about events that one talks about to another in the conversation. (b) the names of the parties or entities involved or any specifics that could lead to their identities.
I believe that part (a) of the conversation which leaves out names and any common means of identification of entities involved is not bound under the confidentiality agreement.
Lawyers and doctors use part (a) in their research. They discuss this among themselves. Perhaps a good amount of this research can come to a stop if patients or clients insisted on a total ban including not only (b) but also part (a) of their conversation with the doctors / lawyers.
I have established a "precedent" to indicate that part (a) is not ethically protected by confidentiality. At this point in time I am unable to see that non-protection of (a) is deleterious to the person(s) concerned.
It is my decision hence that (i) all conversation that anyone may have had with me is open for research, discussion or presentation in any mode or forum as long as (ii) part b of the conversation is never revealed. This decision overrides any promises I might have made in any form to anyone. This is applicable with retrospective effect.
Additional reading:
- http://www.baptistboard.com/showthread.php?t=18186 (Read last para by Carson Weber dated: 03-05-2002, 08:09 PM)
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_of_the_Confessional_and_the_Catholic_Church (Read box in the section titled History and the last para in the section titled "In Practice")
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Client_confidentiality
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