Hi, what is the difference between classified information and confidential information?
Thank you!
Andreana
Hi again Andreana,
Information that is classified means that it isn’t necessarily available or open to the general public. It is an overall name for information that has a certain classification which can be for example: restricted/secret/top secret depending on its content. It therefore follows that confidential is a type of classification.
Alan
I’d say that classified information is a type of confidential information. If you hear that some information is confidential, that just means that someone doesn’t want you to tell it to anybody. That someone could be a company, a doctor or even an ordinary individual. If you hear that something is classified information, that means that some official organization – almost always the government – has ordered people to keep it a secret. Classified information almost always involves national security, and if you tell people that information, you might go to prison.
Hi Jamie (K),
You say
I said
Are we both saying the same thing?
Alan
Yup! I’m just explaining it differently. I’m a detail freak.
Hi Jamie (K),
Well, that’s one way of putting it! I’m reminded more and more of that musical Annie Get your Gun and the hit song - Anything you can do, I can do better. Naturally it’s an American musical.
Alan
That’s not now (how?) I think, but it probably comes off that way. What I really imagine I’m doing in these situations is adding to your explanation, not debating you or trying to show you up. I think I’m helping you help, and just discussing.