An information hazard (henceforth shortened to "info hazard") is a risk that (true) information shared will either cause harm, or provide another with the means to cause harm. Well-known within the global catastrophic risk (GCR) reduction community is that merely discussing GCRs may result in info hazards. The classic example of this is discussion of how terrorists might use biotechnology to engineer a pandemic will be used by terrorists as inspiration or instructions on how to do just that.
In the past, I've privately discussed not publicizing some information I write on GCRs, as they may pose an info hazard for increasing GCRs. However, I will not be running every thing I write on the topic through some sort of test to check for info hazards before I publish or publicize. Yet, that doesn't mean I have categorical confidence in my ability to identify what is or isn't an info hazard. What doesn't appear to be an info hazard to me may appear to obviously be an info hazard to others. Because of whatever cause or bias, I may have blindspots regarding this others don't.
Thus, this blog post acts as a reminder that if you think something I publish poses an info hazard, either regarding GCRs or something else, please let me know. If you explain your rationale for why you think something is an info hazard and I disagree, we can discuss it, and I will during the discussion retract as best I can from the public Internet the piece in question. However, them being so rare, and readers very unlikely to tell me something is an info hazard when it actually isn't, I expect I will earnestly believe something is indeed an info hazard when faced with a claim of such. So, I will likely delete from the public eye any material you believe is an info hazard.
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