[WikiEN-l] Classified information in Wikipedia

Fri Apr 1 14:56:25 UTC 2005

Here's an example of a minor secret which I would never divulge or publish:

I used to work for a company which had radio communications with a central
dispatcher. We had a secret word which if used alerted the dispatcher that
there was a serious problem. It was a pretty nifty system and as far as I
know, none of the thousands of people who ever worked for that company ever
let that secret out.

What is involved is balance. Weighting the slight increase in information
here against the likely harm that is done. There are close questions, even
cases where disclosure of secret information becomes a moral imparative, but
in the usual case the benefit gained by disclosure of military secrets does
not outweigh the potential harm.

Anyone with power has responsibility.

Fred

> From: Matt R <matt_crypto at yahoo.co.uk>
> Reply-To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l at Wikipedia.org>
> Date: Fri, 1 Apr 2005 14:26:15 +0100 (BST)
> To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l at Wikipedia.org>
> Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Classified information in Wikipedia
> 
> My view is that what people do with the information we provide in Wikipedia is
> not our moral responsibility. If there are no legal problems, I would support
> the inclusion of any verifiable, on-topic and noteworthy information.
> 
> --Matt
> [[User:Matt Crypto]]