The CIA Triad

1. Confidentiality means "avoiding the disclosure of information to those who aren't allowed or wanted to view it." That is, only those who are authorized to view this information can access it.
   
   Confidentiality is related to privacy, but information can be confidential also due to its national strategic importance, loss of business opportunities, and copyright and trademark issues.
   
   Each type of data/information has its own level of confidentiality: for example, our lecture notes are viewable by anyone with an Internet connection (no confidentiality at all,) while your medical information can/should be viewed only by healthcare professionals (a higher confidentiality level.)
   
   Accessing confidential info by an unauthorized person or computer program isn't the only way to violate confidentiality: accessing any partial detail or metadata about that confidential info is a violation as well.