Pretty much every company has confidential information. When a company administrator sells the internal address book to a recruiter or when a salesperson makes a copy of the prospects database before joining a competitor - that's leaking too.

It would be interesting to consider a world that is truly without secrets, even of obscurity. It's possible we might get there. I think the way companies and so forth do their work could end up being adjusted to cope.

'The dead past'.

Isaac Asimov, 1956.

I just read that. Thanks for pointing it out. The parallels to the present day are striking and disturbing.

i recommend stephen baxter and arthur c. clarkes "the light of other days". as far as i remember it focusses more on the social than the economical impact of absolute transparency, but i still strongly recommend this excellent book.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Light_of_Other_Days

Consider sports teams. They have strategies and plans which they don't want leaked to their opponents. You'd be hard pressed to call them evil.

yes you are right, I have unconsiuosly narrowed my thinking here (considered only Prism related situations).