Privacy vs Confidentiality

confidential
1 : known or conveyed only to a limited number of people confidential disclosure
2 : marked by or indicative of intimacy, mutual trust, or willingness to confide esp. between parties one of whom is in a position of superiority confidential relationship of doctor and patient
3 : containing information whose unauthorized disclosure could be prejudicial to the national interest

private
1 a : intended for or restricted to the use of a particular person or group or class of persons : not available to the public
b : not related to, controlled by, or deriving from the state private school
2 a : owned by or concerning an individual person or entity
b : not having shares that can be freely traded on the open market private company
3 : affecting the interests of a particular person, class or group of persons, or locality
4 a : not invested with or engaged in public office or employment private citizen
b : not related to or dependent on an official position 

Clearly, these two things are different.  They are not the same, and one word cannot be substituted in for another.  Something can be private, something can be confidential, something can be both private and confidential, or something is neither private or confidential.  The two words do not mean the same thing, yet people for some strange reason always seem to think that they are one in the same when it comes to adoption.

One of the biggest arguments against open records is that the confidentiality of the surrendering parents will be compromised.  It's their "right" to remain anonymous.  Yet, confidentiality is not promised to these parents.  Nowhere does it say that their identities are confidential.  Birth certificates are not sealed until adoptions are finalized, so the names of the surrendering parents remain on the birth certificate until adoptive parents take over.  What if a child is not adopted?  Those names remain on the BC.  If confidentiality was the issue here, BCs would be sealed the minute the surrender papers were signed.  Yet this is not the case.

Natural parents do have a right to privacy.  They have a right to have their information guarded from the general public.  However, they do not have a confidential agreement.  Their names should not be held from their children when they come looking for them.  Don't even get me started that having an OBC means that an adoptee will in complete certainty complete a search.

The government should keep their identities private, but not confidential.  They are not interchangeable.  It's absolutely ridiculous to me that smart people, people who attend years and years of college in some of the best universities in the country cannot understand that two words cannot just be switched around for the hell of it.  Show me a confidentiality agreement and I'll back off this issue.

I'm challenging anyone reading this to show me such an agreement.  I'm waiting...