In the above conceptualization, the protection of the often trivial secrets of individuals is often used as a kind of moral and informational camouflage for the actual re-orientation of power around secrets that really matter, i.e., bank account balances, account numbers, insider trading tips, etc. Hence why Apple markets their devices as protecting a fairly nebulous notion of privacy, it's not wrong, but it's not the most interesting part of what happens.
Information asymmetry is the root from which all evil sprouts. There are benign forms no one in their right mind has an issue with. Then there are more malign forms amplified and protected by the very same measures that cordon off the more benign forms. Insider info, beneficial ownership information, trade secrets, even what the Government would see "classified" are all far more destructive overall than their benefit to the handful of individuals keeping them warrants. If there is an ill or a vice to be found, secrecy is a consistent bedfellow thereof. But secrecy is as much a benevolent bedfellow as well, as it curtails mass scale abuses through enforced ignorance. Like the Internet, it's one of those "that which empowers the individual equally if not moreso empowers the organization". You can't make things easier for individuals, without making it easier for groups of individuals to turn around and abuse unorganized individuals with the same tools.
