An information hazard, infohazard, or cognitohazard is "a risk that arises from the dissemination of (true)

information Information is an Abstraction, abstract concept that refers to something which has the power Communication, to inform. At the most fundamental level, it pertains to the Interpretation (philosophy), interpretation (perhaps Interpretation (log ...

that may cause harm or enable some agent to cause harm". It was formalized by philosopher

Nick Bostrom Nick Bostrom ( ; ; born 10 March 1973) is a Philosophy, philosopher known for his work on existential risk, the anthropic principle, human enhancement ethics, whole brain emulation, Existential risk from artificial general intelligence, superin ...

in 2011. It challenges the principle of freedom of information, as it states that some types of information are too dangerous, as people could either be harmed by it or use it to harm others. This is sometimes why information is

classified Classified may refer to: General *Classified information, material that a government body deems to be sensitive *Classified advertising or "classifieds" Music *Classified (rapper) (born 1977), Canadian rapper * The Classified, a 1980s American ro ...

based on its sensitivity. One example would be the instructions for creating a

thermonuclear weapon A thermonuclear weapon, fusion weapon or hydrogen bomb (H-bomb) is a second-generation nuclear weapon design. Its greater sophistication affords it vastly greater destructive power than first-generation nuclear bombs, a more compact size, a lowe ...

. Following these instructions could cause massive amounts of harm to others, therefore limiting who has access to this information is important in preventing harm to others.

Classification

According to Bostrom, there are two defined major categories of information hazard. The first is the "adversarial hazard" which is where some information can be purposefully used by a bad actor to hurt others. The other category is where the harm is not purposeful, but merely an unintended consequence that harms the person who learns about it. Bostrom also proposes several subsets of these major categories, including the following types: * Data hazards: A piece of data that can be used to harm others, such as the

DNA sequence A nucleic acid sequence is a succession of bases within the nucleotides forming alleles within a DNA (using GACT) or RNA (GACU) molecule. This succession is denoted by a series of a set of five different letters that indicate the order of the nu ...

of a lethal

pathogen In biology, a pathogen (, "suffering", "passion" and , "producer of"), in the oldest and broadest sense, is any organism or agent that can produce disease. A pathogen may also be referred to as an infectious agent, or simply a Germ theory of d ...

. * Idea hazards: General ideas that can harm others if fulfilled. One example is the idea of "using a

fission reaction Nuclear fission is a reaction in which the nucleus of an atom splits into two or more smaller nuclei. The fission process often produces gamma photons, and releases a very large amount of energy even by the energetic standards of radioactive d ...

to create a bomb". Knowing this idea alone can be enough for a well-resourced team to develop a nuclear bomb. * Knowing-too-much hazards: Information that, if known, can cause danger to the person who knows it. For example, in the 1600s, women who allegedly possessed knowledge of the occult or birth control methods were at a higher risk of being accused of

witchcraft Witchcraft is the use of Magic (supernatural), magic by a person called a witch. Traditionally, "witchcraft" means the use of magic to inflict supernatural harm or misfortune on others, and this remains the most common and widespread meanin ...

Usage by context

Biotechnology

Additionally, the availability of information on DNA sequences of diseases or the chemical makeup of toxins could lead to adversarial hazards, as bad actors could use this information in order to recreate these biohazards on their own. In 2018, a research paper led to media coverage by explaining how to synthesize a

poxvirus ''Poxviridae'' is a family of double-stranded DNA viruses. Vertebrates and arthropods serve as natural hosts. The family contains 22 genera that are assigned to two subfamilies: ''Chordopoxvirinae'' and ''Entomopoxvirinae''. ''Entomopoxvirinae'' ...

Information security

The concept of information hazards is also relevant to

information security Information security is the practice of protecting information by mitigating information risks. It is part of information risk management. It typically involves preventing or reducing the probability of unauthorized or inappropriate access to data ...

. Many government, public, and private entities have information that could be classified as a data hazard that could harm others if leaked. This could be the result of an adversarial hazard or an idea hazard. To avoid this, many organizations implement

security controls Security controls or security measures are safeguards or countermeasures to avoid, detect, counteract, or minimize security risks to physical property, information, computer systems, or other assets. In the field of information security, such co ...

depending on their own needs or the needs laid out by regulatory bodies.

Law

Willful blindness In law, willful ignorance is when a person seeks to avoid civil or criminal liability for a wrongful act by intentionally keeping themselves unaware of facts that would render them liable or implicated. In '' United States v. Jewell'', the court ...

(also spelled wilful blindness) is the deliberate avoidance of knowledge of facts, in

common law Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes. Although common law may incorporate certain statutes, it is largely based on prece ...

jurisdictions it is treated as equivalent to

actual knowledge In law, knowledge is one of the degrees of ''mens rea'' that constitute part of a crime. For example, in English law, the offence of knowingly being a passenger in a vehicle taken without consent (TWOC) requires that the prosecution Legal burden ...

. It is applied in criminal proceedings and

corporate liability Corporate liability, also referred to as liability of legal persons, determines the extent to which a company as a legal person can be held liable for the acts and omissions of the natural persons it employs and, in some legal systems, for those o ...

cases, particularly where individuals or entities deliberately restrict their access to information to avoid legal or ethical responsibility. For example, a company may deliberately try to avoid information on the safety of their work practices, as in the event of an injury their legal liability will be lessened if they were not officially aware of the danger.

Literature

The idea of forbidden knowledge that can harm the person who knows it is found in many stories in the 16th and 17th centuries, which imply or explicitly state that some knowledge is dangerous for the viewer or for others and is better left hidden.

Popular culture

The idea of an information hazard overlaps with the idea of a harmful trend or

social contagion Social contagion involves behaviour, emotions, or conditions spreading spontaneously through a group or network. The phenomenon has been discussed by social scientists since the late 19th century, although much work on the subject was based on ...

. In it, knowledge of certain trends can result in their replication, such as in the case of certain viral trends that can be physically dangerous to those who attempt them.

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{Cite journal , last=Bostrom , first=Nick , date=2011 , title=Information Hazards: A Typology of Potential Harms from Knowledge , url=https://www.nickbostrom.com/information-hazards.pdf , journal=Review of Contemporary Philosophy , volume=10 , pages=44–79 Hazards Information