Premium
Benefits and costs of confidential information: An application of systems theory and catastrophe theory
Author(s) -
Fung K. K.
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
behavioral science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.371
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1099-1743
pISSN - 0005-7940
DOI - 10.1002/bs.3830250304
Subject(s) - confidentiality , catastrophe theory , pareto principle , computer science , perspective (graphical) , risk analysis (engineering) , computer security , economic justice , business , environmental economics , law and economics , economics , internet privacy , microeconomics , operations management , engineering , geotechnical engineering , artificial intelligence
This article concerns confidentiality of information in social systems at the levels of the group, organization, society, and supranational system. It analyses the benefits and costs of confidentiality in terms of actual and potential Pareto optimality. A systems perspective based on the ecological concepts of successional and climax communities is used to analyze both the power and limit of confidential information as a single purpose instrument amid conflicting objectives. A cusp catastrophe is employed to model discontinuity in confidential behavior, which tends to reduce the quality and availability of confidential information and, therefore, increase the cost of obtaining it when confidentiality is violated. Finally, an approach to a selective protection of confidentiality is suggested which achieves both economic efficiency and distributional justice by varying the assignments of rights and burden of proof to different parties depending on their relative gains/losses and relative strength.