By Jacqueline Stone. Jacqueline is a lawyer, venture capitalist and Faculty member with Cranlana Centre for Ethical Leadership, which works with leaders and organisations across Australia to grow their ethical capability.

Of all the ethical principles accountants live by, confidentiality seems like the easy one. How hard can it be not to tell people things? But this apparently simple obligation has an extraordinary knack for appearing in the most complicated professional dilemmas. At Cranlana Centre for Ethical Leadership, confidentiality rarely gets the same philosophical attention as integrity or objectivity. Yet its presence across every professional code suggests something deeper. Confidentiality isn’t just an administrative formality, rather it’s essential moral architecture that preserves trust.

For accountants especially, confidentiality is no lesser virtue than objectivity or integrity. It stands shoulder-to-shoulder with these principles in sustaining professional trust. Because confidentiality isn’t about concealment; it’s about stewardship: the careful, disciplined management of information that isn’t yours to share or to use other than for the purpose given to you. Like all forms of stewardship, it demands your judgement, restraint and occasionally, moral courage.

Why It Matters

For chartered accountants, confidentiality is integral to their professional life. Clients, employers and the public must be able to trust that private information and commercially confidential information, financial or otherwise, given to a chartered accountant will be handled with discretion and respect. Without that trust, confidence in the profession falters and with it, the social licence that allows accountants to handle sensitive material at all.

Confidentiality is not something bestowed based on materiality. Confidentiality doesn’t only apply when the consequences of disclosure are high.  It’s credibility rests on it being treated as a consistent professional discipline. If confidentiality is only invoked selectively, it can start to look like a convenient “shield” rather than a genuine professional duty.  And once that professional discipline begins to erode, so does the privilege and public trust on which the profession depends.

"Confidentiality doesn’t come with an expiry date. It endures long after a contract ends, or a client departs and it extends beyond the office to every conversation, even the casual ones."

Yet the principle pulls in two directions. The Code demands confidentiality; this extends to the accountant’s knowledge of confidential information acquired during an engagement or professional appointment even if that information is eventually disclosed by others and is in the public domain – lawfully or unlawfully. But the Code permits disclosure in circumstances where the law or the public interest demands it. Breach reporting, such as that prescribed by Australia’s tax agent laws, anti–money-laundering laws and NOCLAR (non-compliance with laws and regulations) provisions all test those boundaries. With NOCLAR, it’s important to be aware that disclosure may be permitted where the public interest is clear, but not if it breaches a law or causes greater harm. While the Code provides guidance, these situations require professional judgement, moral maturity and often, legal advice.

Emerging Threats and Challenges

The traditional image of a confidentiality breach, a misplaced file or an indiscreet conversation, now looks almost quaint. Today the threats are faster and far more complex. Cybersecurity failures, AI-driven data processing and automated compliance tools all create vulnerabilities. An unintentional compromise to confidentiality exists in automation and information flowing where it wasn’t meant to go.

Meanwhile, public expectations have shifted. The demand for transparency in some spheres of an accountant’s work means professionals must constantly defend the legitimacy of holding information in confidence at all. Maintaining confidentiality in this new climate is much more than an ethical duty – it’s a reputational balancing act.

Practising the Skill

Confidentiality isn’t a passive condition; it’s an active discipline. It’s something you practise in how you listen, what you record, how you protect and what you choose to share.

A few habits help keep it strong:

• Know your recipients. Ask who genuinely needs the information? The line between “need to know” and “nice to know” is thinner than it looks. Be aware that the unauthorised sharing of confidential information within the firm for the advantage of the accountant, firm, employer or third party - will be a breach of your professional obligations to the Code, it may also be unlawful.
• Be a careful listener. Confidentiality isn’t about silence; it’s about creating trust without pushing for disclosures others shouldn’t make.
• Do your due diligence. Understand clients, their motives and the ethical risks before agreeing to hold their confidence.
• Plan your exits. When a relationship ends, so should your access. Build a clear handover and deletion processes into your workflows.
• Model restraint. Culture is shaped by what leaders share and what they don’t. Any confidence shared, risks distortion and further dissemination.  Gossip, unlike discretion, spreads fast.
• If in doubt, act - but don’t improvise. The Code is clear: when boundaries blur, get legal advice, contact CA ANZ, or speak with the CA Advisory Group. A timely question is always safer and more professional than a confident guess.
• Never Assume. Obtain permission in writing before disclosing any information, address confidentiality in engagement documentation for purposes such as training and always document your discussions with your client and follow up in writing.

The Hard Part

Confidentiality may look like the quietest of virtues, but it’s among the hardest to abide by. It asks you to be discreet without being complicit or turning a blind eye; transparent within boundaries and without being reckless; trustworthy without being naïve. Keeping things to yourself, it turns out, is much harder and far more complicated and important than it sounds.