The Difference Between Privacy and Secrecy

The institution of private adoption in America has pulled off an incredible feat of social engineering by conflating privacy with secrecy. We continue this unethical feat by not only normalizing the conflation of privacy with secrecy but by allowing the policymaking process to treat these distinct concepts as if they were the same. Today's legislators have the power and responsibility to recognize this distinction. We do not need to perpetuate an institution's outdated practices that were never based on evidence or the expressed wishes of marginalized voices within it. Instead, we can listen to the voices of adult adopted people and women who have lost children to adoption who have consistently called for more transparency and truth.

PRIVACY

Privacy refers to the ability to control information about oneself and involves the basic human right to keep certain aspects of one's life or personal information away from public scrutiny or unauthorized access.

         Historical private adoption practices have imposed secrecy and forced anonymity under the guise of privacy. 
        

"We do not consider the human beings we gave birth to as "the public." We believe they are authorized individuals to access their own original birth certificates and that they have earned this authority simply by being born: it is their birthright to know the truth about their birth."

-Concerned United Birth Parents

SECRECY

Secrecy is the deliberate act of hiding something from someone even if they have a legitimate reason to access it.

          Adopted persons have a right to a vital record about themselves, so current policy limiting this access is based on secrecy and not privacy.
        

A Critical Distinction

We're calling for an end to this misunderstanding and a recognition that privacy rights must not be used to justify systemic secrecy. The time has come to align our laws with human rights, not institutional convenience.