ABSTRACT
In traditional offline environments, there are many claims made to informational rights as well as allegations of informational wrongs. However, our interest is primarily in the privacy and confidentiality of information. In traditional offline environments, we have an interest in controlling the outward flow of information that touches and concerns us in some material respect. Sometimes, we want to prevent any release or circulation of the information; paradigmatically, this is the function of our ‘privacy’ interest. The right to know has applications in relation to both public and personal information. So far as access to public information is concerned, over one hundred countries worldwide have freedom of information laws. There is rough agreement on the kinds of informational interests that are distinctively online interests. The turbulence in informational rights and interests is simply a symptom of this malaise. The confidence might arise by virtue of the nature of the information: quite simply, some information is always to be treated as confidential.
