need to know

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Also found in: Acronyms.

need to know

A criterion used in security procedures that requires the custodians of classified information to establish, prior to disclosure, that the intended recipient must have access to the information to perform his or her official duties.
Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms. US Department of Defense 2005.
References in periodicals archive ?
This is on a need to know basis - and now, more than ever, you need to know.
It seems the details will always be on a need to know basis, but it does raise questions when you take into account that those apparently in the know, don't actually seem to be that quick to respond in all cases.
When the offspring may charge in cheerily requesting: "What's for dinner tonight?" the quick thinking parent may loftily reply: "You are now on a need to know basis." This is a good ruse to use when the parent may not even know yet what is for dinner.
The council's previous Labour administration, it was suggested, treated everything on a need to know basis. And the public did not need to know.
The media, police and government need to agree to adopt a 'need to know basis' for such sensitive information.
And this led to a favorite saying of administrative people in the Bureau: 'This is on a need to know basis, and the locals don't need to know.'"
As they plan the heist, Mamet takes a perverse delight in keeping the audience on a strictly need to know basis and, refreshingly, violence is a last resort.