Aicpa's Code of Ethics Confidentiality

Character trait that I have chosen is confidentiality, which isn't a character trait at all, but a behavior. This is accounting -- we need to categorize things properly. Confidentiality is important in the accounting profession, and therefore it is something that an accountant must take seriously. The accountant has a duty to act in the client's benefit, and part of that means being able to maintain confidentiality with respect to any of the dealings that the accountant has with the client (Nordmeyer, 2015).

There are a few different areas where confidentiality comes into play, in particular with respect to unauthorized disclosure of information, and inappropriate use of financial information. In essence, the accountant needs to maintain client confidentiality, except in situations where to do so would be unethical (i.e. whistleblower situations). Confidentiality is not even just about the person, but about the team, about the systems, and the different protocols and protections that exist to ensure that the client's privacy is upheld. The actions of the accountant should in no way result in a breach of confidentiality.

When AICPA's verbal engineers sat down to record the epic tome that is ts Code of Professional Conduct, confidentiality was noted in many different sections. Confidential information is any information that is obtained from the client but is not available to the public, which makes is clear what sort of information falls under the category of confidentiality. There should be training to ensure that every member of a given team is aware of the confidentiality rules and practices, as well. But in general, AICPA simply mandates that all confidential information, as defined, cannot be disclosed without consent of the client, except in whistleblower-type situations.

There are definitely no articles about maintaining accounting confidentiality, since that is the norm, and not exactly the pinnacle of newsworthiness. But violating confidentiality seems also rare. But an article on Accounting Web highlighted different ways that accountants violate AICPA's ethics requirements. In one case noted in this article, Deloitte tax partner Arnold McClellan had obtained confidential information about acquisitions that were planned. They passed this iforation on to family members, who traded on the information (Eyden, 2012). Thus, it was the SEC who ultimately prosecuted this on the basis of trading on insider information, but this would also represent a violation of confidentiality, because the information was not public at the time, and was learned from the client. That information is not supposed to be disclosed to anybody under AICPA's confidentiality rule, and any other definition of the term.