Sensitive but Unclassified Information

[Miles R. Fidelman]

It's worth noting that there are effectively two categories of information
here: First, the funny notion of "quasi-classified" data, that seems to be
causing all of the problems; and second, non-classified information that the
government must protect for either legal or policy reasons. In this second
category are such things as tax records and other personal data, proprietary
data and such things as economic reports and Federal Reserve announcements that
should be announced to all parties at the same point in time.

Quasi-classification seems like a somewhat spurious exercise: It should either
be classified or not, and the legal authority of the Government to impose
restrictions on private individuals and corporations appears questionable. In
the second category , however, it seems like a good idea that the government be
required to exercise care in its own handling of sensitive data (e.g. by
applying COMSEC and COMPUSEC measures).