The activities of any state and its organs depend on a large number of factors. First of all, it is necessary to note the importance of law. Indeed, thanks to this specific regulator of public relations, the activities of many departments and services are carried out within a certain framework. In addition, the legal regime in the state helps streamline the interaction of people. That is, in this case we are talking about such indispensable categories as law and order and law. It should be noted that these elements affect many areas of human activity. Among these can be attributed information. After all, statements of any nature have their own value. Of course, in some cases it will be completely insignificant. Nevertheless, information is an area that is regulated and in some cases protected by law. It should be noted that there is certain information, the requirements of the state to which are overstated. In this case, we are talking about such specific types of information as professional and official secret. Categories have not only characteristic features, but also a number of certain points related to legal protection. Therefore, we will consider the specifics of official professional secrets later in the article, based on the provisions of the current legislation.
Information: concept
Secrecy of any type protected by applicable law in all cases is nothing more than information with limited access. That is, this is certain information that is not known to all people. Moreover, they need to be studied on the basis of the classical concept of “information”. This term characterizes any kind of information, if you do not take into account the form of their direct expression. Information in this sense can be displayed in an ideal form, that is, in the mind of people, as well as on material media, for example, paper, computer, voice recorder, photographs, video files, etc. In addition, one must take into account the fact that any information appears exclusively in the process of communication. As for information with limited access (official and professional secrets), it is generally confidential, which causes some of its features.
What is confidential information?
Any restricted access statements are inherently confidential. This term implies the inadmissibility of the disclosure or otherwise leak of specific information. The confidentiality regime is extremely strictly observed in state organizations and services, where work implies interaction with limited statements by law. Thus, confidential information is a collection of certain information, the disclosure of which is not allowed by applicable law. This information plays an important role in the 21st century. Because today, information with limited access can be made public by the Internet and other technological innovations. This, as we understand it, should not happen. Indeed, the leak of confidential information can cause invaluable damage to the public. In this article, the author is interested in the following types of information with limited access, namely:
- professional secret;
- official secret;
It should be noted that the second part of the name of specific information contains the word "secret" for a reason. The regime of these statements is determined by the lack of access to them for the majority of citizens of the Russian Federation.
Legislation in the field of professional and official information
In the Russian Federation, there are many legal mechanisms that govern various activities. Thus, a lot of normative acts that protect official and professional secrets can be distinguished. Law, by-laws and judicial legal acts are the basis of the entire legal system of this issue. Thus, the following sources are related to similar sources of the presented information mode, namely:
1. Norms of laws, for example, the fundamentals of the legislation of the Russian Federation “On notaries”, the fundamentals of the legislation of the Russian Federation “On health care”, the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the Civil Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the Family Code of the Russian Federation, the Federal Law “On Psychiatric Care”, the Federal Law “On organ transplantation ”, Federal Law“ On Postal Communication ”, etc.
2. There are also a number of by-laws that are not basic, but which have a great influence on the process of organizing and protecting professional and official secrets. These include the decree of the Government of the Russian Federation “On the approval of the rules for the provision of postal services”, etc.
3. Of great importance for the formation and modernization of public relations in the field of official and professional secrets is the judicial practice, even despite the fact that the legal precedent in the legal system of the Russian Federation is not used.
The presented types of regulatory acts are the basis of the confidentiality regime of professional and official secrets. It should be noted that most do not distinguish between the features of the two categories presented. At the same time, official and professional secrets are completely different in nature. This is evident not only by any theoretical understanding, but also by the object composition and principles of information circulation.
What is a professional secret?
Professional secrecy is a collection of certain data. But, as we have already found out, information of this kind is protected by law. However, this is not the only characteristic moment. The concept says that professional secret is a system of information that falls to the holder, that is, to the person who owns it, by virtue of the fulfillment by the latter of any professional functions. At the same time, a person should not be in the municipal or public service, as this will already be an example of other information. In addition to everything else, a secret of a professional nature, with its direct disclosure, can lead to the onset of negative consequences, which, in turn, will harm society and individuals. Thus, this thesis reveals the importance of the confidentiality mode of the described information.
Criteria for assessing professional secrecy
So, we found out what a professional secret is. This information has many features. At the same time, it should be noted that far from any information can be classified as professional. For information to have a similar status, it must meet a number of criteria, namely:
- the holder recognized it solely by virtue of the fulfillment of certain functional duties;
- the holder should not be a representative of the state or municipal service, otherwise the information will have a completely different status;
- information that is a professional secret must be banned, which does not allow the disclosure of information due to the fact that it can harm society and specific individuals;
- professional secret, or rather, information belonging to it, should not relate to information of state or commercial value;
In addition to the criteria presented, it is necessary to take into account the fact that there is responsibility for the disclosure of professional secrets. This factor is extremely important, since it indicates the existence of a certain protection regime for the relevant data. Thus, information will be a professional secret if it is positively characterized from the standpoint of all the criteria presented.
Secret of a Professional Character - Object Composition
Based on the above criteria, the following specific objects of professional secrecy can be distinguished. In this case, the object is specific information of a particular sphere of human activity. From this we can distinguish the following industries that fall under the legal regime of professional secrets, for example:
1. Almost every person at least once in a life turned to doctors. But at the same time, few people know that the information that they directly possess is protected by law and is called medical secret. It includes a number of the following data: the fact of contacting a medical institution, information about the donor, information about medical documentation, information about the fact of artificial insemination, information about the patient’s mental illness, etc.
2. The structure of the object composition of professional secrets also includes information transmitted between people through various forms of communication (mail, telephone, e-mails, the Internet, etc.).
3. The current legislation protects notarial secrecy, that is, the information that becomes known to the notary in the process of specific actions. In this case, we can also mention the specific mode of information that is known to lawyers in the process of providing legal assistance.
4. The secret of adoption is the object of professional information. This includes information about the child who was adopted.
5. Oddly enough, but the law extends its protection to information that is entrusted to priests directly in confession.
6. The last object of professional secrecy is insurance secrecy, namely, information about the beneficiary and the insured person (property status, state of health, etc.).
It should be remembered that the object composition includes a strict list of individual areas. Its expansion is allowed only on the basis of changes or additions to the current legislation. After all, the objects presented are actually taken from specific legal norms presented earlier in the article of the legal regulation. If you do not observe the legal regime of these objects and violate it in every possible way, then inevitable responsibility for disclosing professional secrets may follow.
Professional Secret - Subjects
Earlier we examined specific statements covered by the legal protection regime . But any legal category has a number of specific individuals who actually implement its features. The subjects of professional secrecy in this case are characterized by the fact that they directly contact with such information. As a result of this, they have the opportunity to divulge it, change it, destroy it, etc. To date, the following persons are classified as subjects of professional secrecy:
- principals or owners of certain information;
- holders;
- users;
The trustee can be called an individual, that is, a specific person who transfers the sheets known to him to another person. As a rule, this status has ordinary citizens who have applied to a particular company to resolve a specific issue. Their role in the process of protecting and using professional secrets is insignificant. The information holder is much more important. It includes both individuals and legal entities. The peculiarity lies in the fact that, due to the performance of professional tasks and specific functions, the company or an individual receives confidential information. Automatically the regime of legal protection of information of the corresponding type begins to spread to it. To date, the following persons can be attributed to holders of professional information, namely:
- participants in adoption cases;
- health care institutions: doctors, pharmaceutical workers, etc.
- persons organizing the process of postal and electrical communications;
- notaries;
- lawyers, priests, clergy.
The ambiguous status has persons who are characterized as users of professional secrets. These entities gain access to relevant information due to their performance, which is stipulated by the norms of legislative acts. Such persons are responsible for maintaining professional secrecy and its proper use, during which it will not be communicated to people and organizations that do not have the corresponding rights to it. Given this thesis, we can conclude that the users are:
- Judges who have cases with protected information.
- Prosecutors, whose professional information became known in connection with the implementation of the investigation.
- Bodies carrying out operational investigative activities if protected information came to them in the course of operational activities.
Thus, the user can be a person or organization that represents state power, if access to professional secrets is stipulated by the current legislation and relevant derogations, grounds, etc. As mentioned earlier, these persons play a large role in the legal protection of the presented category. Because thanks to them, legal protection of professional secrets is realized.
Official secret
Legal regulation of professional secrets is carried out through the above-mentioned normative acts. However, the information available to subjects in connection with their activities should not be equated with official information. Because the latter species characterizes a completely independent system of individual information. Based on this, it can be concluded that official confidentiality is confidential information protected by law, which is owned by representatives of state bodies and local self-government. Moreover, information of this nature can be known to subjects only by virtue of legal grounds in the process of their performance of official activities. Access to proprietary information is limited by the current legislation due to possible harm that may arise due to its disclosure. Legal protection of official secrets is carried out on the basis of the provisions of the federal law “On official secrets”.
Criteria for classifying information as official
As in the case of professional secrets, official information can only be considered if it meets a number of requirements. These include the following, namely:
- information should be attributed to official provisions of legislative acts;
- it is possible to attribute statements to official secret if there is official necessity for this;
- the information contains information about the private life of another person (commercial, banking secrets, etc.);
- information is not a state secret ;
- information was received in the course of activities of a state body or local government;
If a specific list of information meets these characteristics, then it can easily be attributed to official information, which will indicate the presence of a specific regime for its protection.
Objects of official secrecy
Protection of professional secrets, as well as official secrets, is aimed at certain objects. Only in the second case, the list of specific information will differ. The objects of official secrecy today include information in the following areas, for example:
- information on the activities of federal state bodies, military judicial and investigative secrets;
- information containing personal data on legal entities and individuals, which became known due to the implementation of official activities;
Thus, the protection mode applies to information only if it is a direct object of official secrets. In other cases, we cannot talk about the availability of legal protection of any statements.
Conclusion
So, in the article we tried to answer the question of what constitutes information constituting a professional secret and official. It should be noted that the legal characterization of these categories is simply necessary, given the prevalence of digital technology in the modern world, with the help of which the secret is often disclosed to unauthorized persons.