Concerns around confidentiality of information in contracts are arguably the most significant barriers to more openness. This brief guide proposes five core principles to make contracting information open-by-design to avoid a lazy default of routinely classifying information as confidential unless proven otherwise.

Discussing these principles with more than 70 experts across government, business and civil society from more than 20 countries, it is examined the ten most common arguments against making contracting information public. It is found surprisingly little evidence that backed up the harm proposed by the arguments and quite a lot of evidence that does not support them.