Is there a standard to the level of secrecy? Or does each agency make up its own?
Does some figure decide what is secret in government? And/or does federal law make some things de facto secret (ie, identity of certain operatives)? (Would that be de facto non facto? :rolleyes: )
Since you can not keep track of each fact as secret fact by fact easily (fact #12,305 is secret, but #12,304 is not), is secrecy based on ramifications of what you might reveal, types of information, or project by project? I guess all three, but who keeps track of secrets to police those who know them?
In general in the US, there are three broad ranges of classification - confidential, secret, top secret (although there are a slew of special classifications especially once you are above TS). (There are also a number of other restrictions for who can see unclassified information. One example is International Traffic in Arms Restrictions, or ITAR, which forbids the export of certain key or dual use technologies, which includes showing related information to a foreign national) The levels, broadly, are based on how severely revealing the information could affect the security of the US. I think agencies decide within themselves what information/documents/programs get classified. There are a number of people who feel that US government agencies tend to go overboard with classifying material or not declassifying it in a timely or appropriate manner.
There are a number of other rules about whether, within the context of a classified program, information is classified. One example is the “pizza rule” - dough, sauce, cheese, and pepperoni may not be individually classified, but put them all together and the product is.