Confidential Treatment Research Articles

Individuals under voluntary treatment with sexual interest in minors: what risk do they pose?

Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) and the production, use, and distribution of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) are key threats to children's mental health. From the perspective of indicated prevention, it can be assumed that some persons with a sexual interest in children commit such unreported crimes. Accordingly, the German Network kein Täter werden (meaning do not offend) has implemented a confidential treatment service for persons with a sexual interest in minors who voluntarily seek therapy, might or might not have offended but have not yet been detected or have fulfilled all legal requirements (here referred to as non-forensic individuals). However, this offer has been questioned for investing resources in a group which critics consider as low risk. The following study addresses the question of recidivism risks for CSA or viewing CSAM among non-forensic individuals. We found significantly higher rates of CSA/CSAM in our participants' history compared to a German study on a representative sample of males. Regarding CSAM, the recidivism rate of 39% was found to be 11 times higher than the expected recidivism rate based on previous publications. Regarding CSA, the recidivism rate of 14% was not significantly different from the expected rate reported for subjects with a conviction for a sexual contact offense. Among various risk instruments, only the CPORT with CASIC rating was able to predict CSA (AUC = 0.69, 95% CI = 0.55, 0.82) and CSAM (AUC = 0.63, 95% CI = 0.53, 0.73) among individuals with a history of CSAM, but with poor discrimination. We conclude that a large proportion of our sample poses a substantial risk and therefore treatment resources are well invested. However, further studies are needed to improve risk assessment among non-forensic clients.

Pakistan’s Opioid Squeeze: Impacts of Taliban Edicts, Indian Synthetics and Chinese Regulations

This study examines how the Taliban’s opium poppy eradication edict and the westward shift in illicit fentanyl production from China to India potentiates an opioid squeeze on Pakistan from its east-west flanks, influencing Pakistan’s opioid production, distribution and use. As opioid output sputters in Afghanistan, while Indian chemists increasingly normalise illicit fentanyl production in South Asia, opportunistic Pakistani chemists will be incentivised to supply synthetic opioids to high-demand international markets, just as Pakistani farmers supply opium and heroin to international clients. This convergence has ramifications for Pakistani law, drug enforcement and public health, as domestic production increases domestic access to synthetic opioids. The article conducts an empirical examination of current trends in South Asian opioid production, distribution and use, along with an exegesis of the legal and regulatory systems in Pakistan, Afghanistan and China. This study also details how the Pakistani government should respond to this challenge legislatively, foremost through blanket ban of fentanyl and its precursors. Pakistan can reduce domestic use through evidence-based treatment programmes, including discrete and confidential treatment administered by females to female users, opioid substitution therapy, safe needle exchange programmes, culturally sensitive drug awareness campaigns, and increased data collection to detect geographic hotspot locations of opioid use and overdoses.

Do firms follow the SEC’s confidential treatment protocols? Evidence from credit agreements

I examine whether firms follow the Securities and Exchange Commission’s confidential treatment protocols when redacting potentially material information from their credit agreements. My findings suggest that most firms may not comply with SEC directives: they withhold potentially material information without following the SEC’s confidential treatment protocols and without making interested parties aware of their information disadvantage. I also find evidence consistent with lender and borrower incentives driving the decision to withhold potentially material information from the credit agreement. My findings are consistent with lenders influencing redaction decisions not out of concern about rivals but because they do not want their other borrowers to see the terms. Finally, I find that the Refinitiv / LPC Dealscan database rarely includes redacted fee data, thus leading to potential biases when fees are included in cost of debt measures.

Material Contract Redactions and Cybersecurity Breaches

SYNOPSIS Material contract redactions are designed to protect firms’ temporary proprietary information until contracts can come to fruition. Protecting confidential and proprietary information from potential public disclosure is important for a firm’s future. Redactions provide confidential treatment for up to ten years before the contract information must become public. However, the nondisclosure nature of redacting material contract information could nonetheless signal potential value to external stakeholders and attract cybersecurity breaches. In this study, we investigate whether redactions are associated with a greater likelihood of future breaches. We find that redactions are associated with greater probability of a breach in the three years immediately following a redaction. Further, the relationship appears driven by certain contracts and the actual act of redacting. Our results suggest that the act of redacting material contract information provides a signal about a firm’s disclosure behavior, increasing cybersecurity risks.

Access to Non-Summary Clinical Trial Data for Research Purposes Under EU Law

As indicated by the title and further explained in the Preface, the thesis explores if and under what conditions access to clinical trial data is granted and should be granted as a matter of research and innovation policy. Access to non-summary clinical trial data has been discussed in recent years, primarily from the perspective of data protection law and research ethics. Daria Kim’s thesis strives to provide a complementary view which conceptualizes clinical trial data as output of and input for innovative processes in medical and pharmacological R&D. Access to clinical trial data in the EU is highly topical for several reasons. First, EU data policy has recently shifted from the concept of exclusively held, proprietary industry data to an access paradigm which seeks to boost the European digital economy by access rights. The proposal for a European Data Act and the Digital Markets Act are the most prominent instruments. The thesis contributes to this more general discussion with a sector-specific exploration. Second, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an unprecedented public awareness of the mechanisms of innovative processes in the pharmaceutical industry and the role of clinical trials for the success or failure of treatments and vaccines. This raises the question of whether access to clinical trial data may facilitate such innovative processes. Third, EU Regulation 536/2014 on clinical trials on medicinal products for human use and the recent European Medicines Agency (EMA) transparency policies represent a departure from the confidential treatment of non-summary clinical trial data which is still pursued by the US authorities and other regulatory bodies. This European approach of greater transparency has not yet been analyzed from an innovation policy perspective. Daria Kim’s thesis is therefore very well positioned at the crossroads of different legal and policy discourses.

SEC confidential treatment and regulatory filing reviews

We study the interplay between the redaction of information from regulatory filings and SEC monitoring of the redacting firms. We find that redactions are associated with more intense SEC monitoring, as evidenced by higher incidence of comment letters and a longer letter resolution process. Hand collected data indicate seller firms that redact information from their sales, licensing, and royalty contracts are more likely to receive revenue recognition-related comment letters, suggesting spurious correlation is not a likely explanation of the inference. We supplement our findings by providing evidence that redacting firms tend to manage proprietary information disclosure, withholding proprietary information that should be made public under extant rules and regulations. Our findings shed light on how various SEC monitoring processes interact and support one another, offering a novel look on the interaction between a firm’s management of proprietary information disclosure and regulatory oversight.

The paraphile project: primary prevention program for people with paraphilia and their important others

<h3>Objectives</h3> In 2019, the pilot research project Paraphile started due to the lack of policy and early interventions focused on people at higher risk of sexual offending in the Czech Republic. Descriptive data and case histories of clients will be presented. <h3>Methods</h3> In the first 12 months after the programme´s official launch, 49 individuals contacted the project and stated an interest in participating. Awareness of the programme has been ensured through media campaigns, peers and self-supportive communities, and the internet. A telephone screening has been conducted via a 17-item semi-structured interview. Of the 44 who completed the screening, forty individuals were interviewed by a clinician, and thirty-eight completed the full assessment battery. <h3>Results</h3> Twenty-four men with self-identified paraphilia/hypersexual impulses and five close persons have taken part in an anonymous and confidential treatment program. The remaining ten individuals neither met the diagnostic criteria of paraphilia. No sociodemographic data are available due to guaranteed anonymity. Nine men (37,5%) reported fetishist sexual preference, eight men (33,3%) reported pedo-hebephilic sexual preference, three men (12,5%) reported coercive sexual preference, and four men (16,7%) reported hypersexual impulses or behaviour. With respect to criminal history, two of the sample of pedophiles and hebephiles reported having committed child pornography offenses. <h3>Conclusions</h3> The present abstract reports first preliminary results of a prevention project Paraphile, which aims at reaching self-identified paraphiles at higher risk of sexual offending in the Czech Republic. <h3>Conflicts of Interest</h3> No conflict of interest.

Article: A Study on the Protection of Taxpayer Rights in an Era of Enhanced Exchange of Information: How Can the Chinese Approach Be Improved?

This study explores taxpayer protection under the exchange of information (EOI) in China. From a comparative study between Chinese law and European law in general (combining EU law and the ECHR as interpreted by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR)), possible improvements for the Chinese approach are suggested. The protection of taxpayers’ rights is divided into three different layers: confidential treatment of personal data, involvement of the taxpayer in the EOI-processes, and the right to remedy of taxpayers that have been treated incorrectly. Within these layers the study recommends to provide additional measures to attempt to effectively address data leakages or unjustified use of them, improved passive and active access for taxpayers into the EOI-process, and ex ante and ex post remedies in the event of violations. Cross-border exchange of tax-related information, taxpayer rights, data protection, privacy and information confidentiality, taxpayer participation under the EOI, effective remedy, Chinese law, European fundamental legal principles.

Political connections and the SEC confidential treatment process

SEC confidential treatment (CT) orders are regulatory exemptions that enable firms to redact proprietary information from SEC filings if the disclosure would cause competitive harm and if the information is immaterial to investors. This study examines the role of firms' political connections in the SEC's decisions to approve versus reject CT requests before and after Congressional intervention and internal SEC scrutiny into the CT process. CT requests from politically connected firms are less likely to be rejected before Congressional intervention and internal SEC scrutiny and are more likely to be rejected following these events. When the SEC rejects CT requests, firms must disclose the contents of the unapproved redactions. These disclosures are informative to investors, on average, and are less informative following Congressional intervention and internal SEC scrutiny. Together, these findings contribute to the literature on political influence in SEC oversight and disclosure regulation and provide unique evidence on the role of Congressional intervention in SEC decision making.

Nondisclosure and analyst behavior: Evidence from redaction of proprietary information from public filings

This study explores how redacting proprietary information from public filings is related to analyst following and the properties of analysts' earnings forecasts. Using hand-collected data on firms' confidential treatment orders from the Securities and Exchange Commission's Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval database, this study identifies firms that withhold information—redacting firms. Such firms are benchmarked to a matched set of firms not withholding information—non-redacting firms. The study predicts and demonstrates that compared to non-redacting firms, redacting firms have (i) a higher analyst following, (ii) more dispersed and less accurate analysts' earnings forecasts, and (iii) less precise public and private information in analysts' earnings forecasts. Further, additional analyses reveal that analysts covering redacting firms trade off accuracy for timeliness when issuing earnings forecasts, and the market reacts higher to the analyst reports of redacting firms. Moreover, for redacting firms, investors place a higher weight on the information derived from analysts than that obtained from the firm. Overall, the findings suggest that redacted disclosures are associated with greater investor demand for analyst outputs and a deterioration in the analysts' information environment. However, they are also associated with greater investor reliance on analyst outputs.

Political Connections and the SEC Confidential Treatment Process

Political Connections and the SEC Confidential Treatment Process

Do Firms Redact Information from Material Contracts to Conceal Bad News?

ABSTRACT The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) allows firms to redact information from material contracts by submitting confidential treatment requests if redacted information is not material and would cause competitive harm upon public disclosure. This study examines whether managers use confidential treatment requests to conceal bad news. We show that confidential treatment requests are positively associated with residual short interest, a proxy for managers' private negative information. This positive association is more pronounced for firms with lower litigation risk, higher executive equity incentives, and lower external monitoring. Confidential treatment requests filed by firms with higher residual short interests are associated with higher stock price crash risk and poorer future performance. Collectively, our results suggest that managers redact information from material contracts to conceal bad news. Data Availability: Data used in this study are available from public sources identified in the study.

The ethics of organizational research: Methodological considerations for ensuring respondents’ anonymity and confidentiality

When planning any research in an organization, it is necessary to decide upon the types of personal data to be collected. Ethical research principles suggest that researchers need to ensure participants’ anonymity and confidential treatment of their data. However, researchers tend to collect various types of demographic information which might lead participants to believe that their anonymity could be compromised. This article highlights some methodological considerations aimed at ensuring respondents’ anonymity and confidential treatment of their data. It also presents two examples which highlight some potential problems that might arise when respondents feel that the anonymity and confidentiality of their data are threatened. Finally, the article proposes specific actions researchers can take to increase participants’ trust in them and the employed research designs.

Public Country-by-Country Reporting: Corporate Law, Fiscal Law and the Principle of Unanimity

The European Union is in the process to establish “public country-by-country reporting” as a new and wide reaching obligation for multinationals to disclose tax-relevant numbers to a global audience, going beyond the OECD consensus which combined cross-border exchange of reports with confidential treatment by tax authorities. From a legal and institutional point of view the main issue is the correct legal basis for the new directive under the European treaties. Is this a matter of accounting law – which would allow legislation by a qualified majority of Member States under Art.50 TFEU – or is this a matter of tax law – which would require unanimity under Art.115 TFEU? The article shows how the treatment of these issues has been driven rather by political than by legal concerns including a deliberate modification of the directive’s preamble in order to secure a majority vote under Art.50 TFEU.

Physician Mental Health During COVID-19: A Call to Action

Physician Mental Health During COVID-19: A Call to Action

Do Lenders Influence Borrowers’ Mandatory Disclosures? Evidence From Redacted Credit Agreements

I examine whether lender incentives are related to the redaction or non-disclosure of potentially material information from credit agreements of public firms. Using a novel dataset, I find evidence that when lenders invest more in screening and monitoring the borrower or when lenders earn abnormal profits from the loan, credit agreements are more likely to have potentially material information redacted. Furthermore, consistent with the notion that the withholding of information from credit agreements gives current lenders an information advantage, I find that borrowers with redacted credit agreements are more likely to issue subsequent loans with the same lead arranger. Finally, a detailed analysis of credit agreements suggests that firms often withhold potentially material information without the Security and Exchange Commission’s granting a request for confidential treatment.

New Entry Threats and Corporate Disclosure: Evidence from the U.S. High-Tech Sector

We evaluate two competing views – the proprietary costs theory and the entry deterrence theory – in explaining the relationship between entry threats and firms’ disclosure. We examine if entry threats from technology startups influence firms’ information disclosure in the high-tech sector, where significant turbulence emerges from new ventures. Leveraging a new measure of new entry threats (NET) based on text mining of publicly available information, we show that a higher level of NET faced by incumbent firms are associated with a decrease in the transparency of its information disclosure, measured by two indicators: a disclosure index derived from analyst forecasts, and confidential treatment orders filed by firms. Our results support the proprietary cost theory of disclosure. Interestingly, we find this effect to be more pronounced in sectors where proprietary information is vulnerable to misappropriation, and in industries associated with higher worker mobility. We discuss implications for research and insights for practitioners.

‘Safe Haven’ Integral to Physician Wellness

‘Safe Haven’ Integral to Physician Wellness

Protecting Adolescent Confidentiality: A Response to One State's “Parents’ Bill of Rights”

PurposeIn November, 2014, the State of Oklahoma enacted legislation potentially eliminating the provision of conditional confidential pediatric care. A consent form for treatment specific to adolescent confidential care was developed in response. This study examines parent/guardian response to the consent form. MethodsThe consent to treatment form describes the clinical and developmental benefits of conditional confidential treatment of adolescent minors and asks parent/guardians to waive the right to: (1) access confidential portions of the medical record, (2) be present for the physical exam, (3) be present for risk behavior discussions, and (4) consent for hormonal contraception, if indicated. ResultsOf 269parent/guardian respondents to the consent form, over 95% waived their rights for each of the four provisions. ConclusionsWhen provided with information on the rationale for provision of conditional confidential care, a diverse group of parent/guardians in a conservative state overwhelmingly agree to this standard of care.

SEC comment letters and firm disclosure

In an effort to enhance informational transparency for investors, the SEC periodically reviews public firms’ filings for regulatory compliance. Although the SEC dedicates significant resources to the filing review process, the efficacy of this process is unclear. Upon receipt of a comment letter consequent to the SEC’s review, the firm can either remedy perceived disclosure deficiencies or attempt to avoid making substantive disclosure changes, including by requesting that certain additional information be treated as confidential or by negotiating with the SEC. In this paper, we first examine the nature, extent, and impact of modifications to firms’ disclosures requested by an SEC comment letter. While our initial evidence suggests that firms enhance their disclosure, we find that Rule 406 confidential treatment requests and registrant negotiation have an attenuating effect. Further, consistent with proprietary cost concerns, we show that firms in high tech industries and with greater amounts of R&D are more likely to request confidential treatment. We then examine informational transparency in order to test the SEC’s stated intention of the filing review process. We find that improvements to firms’ disclosures following a comment letter are associated with a decrease in information asymmetry and a reduction in litigation risk. Collectively, our paper contributes to the literature on disclosure regulation by providing evidence that the SEC comment letter process generally enhances firms’ disclosures, improves informational transparency for investors, and mitigates firms’ litigation risk, but that some firms take actions that diminish these enhancements.