Confidentiality and Privacy Basics

What you’ll learn

• Identify what information must be kept confidential — and what only feels private
• Apply the "need to know" rule before sharing anything about the people you serve
• Handle, store, and dispose of sensitive details responsibly
• Know the limits of confidentiality — when you must report, and to whom
• Avoid the everyday mistakes that quietly breach trust

Course outline

1. 1

   Why confidentiality is part of the job

   When someone comes to your organization for help — a meal, a shelter bed, counseling, a tutoring session, a medical appointment — they often hand over the most…

   4 min Quiz Interactive
2. 2

   What actually counts as confidential

   Volunteers often assume "confidential" means an obvious secret — a medical record or a Social Security number.

   5 min Quiz Interactive
3. 3

   The "need to know" rule

   You don’t keep information locked in a vault — you have to share some of it to do the work.

   5 min Quiz Interactive
4. 4

   Handling and storing information safely

   Most breaches aren’t dramatic hacks — they’re ordinary slips: a form left on a passenger seat, a screen visible to the waiting room, a group text with a client’s name.

   5 min Quiz Interactive
5. 5

   The limits of confidentiality

   Confidentiality is powerful — but it is not absolute.

   5 min Quiz Interactive
6. 6

   The everyday mistakes that breach trust

   Almost no volunteer sets out to violate someone’s privacy.

   4 min Quiz Interactive
7. 7

   Putting it together: the confidentiality reflex

   Confidentiality becomes easy once it’s a reflex: a quick internal check before you speak, send, set down, or post.

   3 min Interactive

Sources & further reading

• U.S. Department of Health & Human Services — HIPAA Privacy Rule — "minimum necessary" standard
• Federal Trade Commission — Protecting Personal Information: A Guide for Business
• Childhelp / Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline — Reporting child abuse and mandated reporting
• American Psychological Association — Mandatory reporting: confidentiality and its limits
• Verizon — Data Breach Investigations Report — the human element in breaches