Classified material

The term classified material refers to records and other documents emanating mainly from government agencies which, being of a secret or confidential nature, receive protection against unauthorized disclosure. The frequent absurdities in security classifications include the fact that a person must disclose his level of clearance to those of lower level in order to access documents. This itself is poor security. Intergovernmental organizations may have their own security classifications, e.g. Nato Cosmic or Top Secret Government document classifications are applied with frequent lack of justification for either the level or the secrecy and abrogate the public's right to knowledge, when they are maintained on specific documents for excessive periods of time.