"Disclosing the fact of the relationship, the nature of the assistance, or the information provided — which is reflected in these redactions — would suggest to other foreign liaison service and foreign government officials that the US Government is unable or unwilling to observe an express agreement of absolute secrecy".
This also includes use of secrecy agreements with employees and suppliers as well as restricted-access rights to internal databases.
It happened because ACTA's proponents have shrouded the agreement in secrecy, negotiating behind closed doors, limiting the ability of concerned parties to provide input and avoiding open forums that normally deal with international copyright issues.
The attorney general of Maine, Steven Rowe, said the agreement would "lift the cloak of secrecy around Medco".
The company wields "a corporate system of secrecy, nondisclosure agreements and internal security," Mr. Coll writes, "that matched some of the most compartmented black boxes of the world's intelligence agencies".
As more harassment allegations come to light, employment lawyers say nondisparagement agreements have helped enable a culture of secrecy.
The company has a culture of secrecy — with nondisclosure agreements and internal security that can make it seem like an intelligence agency.
The authors also found that there had been a proliferation of secrecy policies and agreements that attempt to silence reports of wrongdoing and obstruct an individual's fundamental right to freely engage with her government". In other words, bankers are becoming even more unethical - and banks are making it harder to report ethical lapses to the authorities.
Previous abuse scandals in North America and Ireland were mired by accusations that the church surrounded itself in a culture of secrecy that favoured confidentiality agreements and the protection of paedophile priests above transparency, institutional reform and the needs of its victims.
After years of secrecy, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement has finally been released to the public.
Confidentiality agreements are common in development negotiations — but the level of secrecy around data center deals is more extensive, experts say.
