[dawnbreez]

Most privacy concerns have to do with information that could be harmful in the wrong hands. My web history is useful to me, but if my roommate gets ahold of it, I will be embarrassed to no end. My SSN ensures I can identify myself within America's bureaucracy, but if someone else has it they can open credit cards in my name. My salary lets me make a budget but if someone else knows what my salary is...then what? How does that information harm me when a third party gets it?

[AstralStorm]

The third party may be:

- an insurance company demanding a premium because you're well paid

- competitor bidding for your labour anchoring their offer to your current salary

Those are just two cases were it could be harmful. The idea is to make the information available and transparent while still not making it public and still protecting it.

[dawnbreez]

Fair enough. The Glassdoor system may be best here, as mentioned in several other comments.

[jimbobimbo]

The answer is: I don't know.

I'm not a bad actor, who spends all their time figuring out how to make profit off of someone else's private info. I'm pretty sure there're very creative ways private information (salary and not) can be misused, but I don't want to find out by volunteering this information.