Secret

You may say: Wouldn't it be respecting a higher degree of privacy if we avoid disclosing the others' names in the public ?

My immediate response is in that case you should not call the name of your friend in the street, otherwise you are impinging on their privacy.

No, the water is deeper than that. By making everyone and everything anonymous to the public, we are working against the original purpose of having the right of privacy: the protection of individuals from dictatorship.

Don't you comprehend that ? By the name of privacy, administrators could, by their own wish or secret agenda, call medical student to attend the viva, give out a piece of land to the son of some billionaire, or arrest anyone - all without being known by the others.

A convenient example is: The government of Burma would not disclose the name of a woman recently arrested for charges not to be disclosed - in order to protect her privacy.

She is Aung San Suu Kyi (昂山素姬), of course.

PS. For a similar reason, I often advise patients with a serious disease to stay in the public ward rather than being transferred to a private one - even though they could afford the charges. For sure they have to sacrifice part of their privacy, but in turn any rapid change in their condition would more readily be noted by whoever passes by.