What is classified information?

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There are three levels of classified information:

Confidential / Controlled Unclassified
Secret
Top Secret

Confidential information are things like Social Security Numbers or the layout of government buildings.

Secret information is anything that can cause serious damage to the US government: think of the specifics of troop movements or information on US weapon vulnerabilities.

Top Secret information is anything that can cause grave damage to the US government such as the sources and methods of intelligence collection or the status of nuclear weapons.

Items can be declassified by presidential decree or by specially appointed “original classification authorities.”

Note that people suffered jail time and loss of career for exposing classified information.

Former General David Petraeus was forced to resign after leaking Top Secret information to the press.
Former Air Force Airman and security contractor Reality Winner was jailed for leaking classified information to a website.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton suffered extensive career damage after classified information was found on her private email server.

References:
https://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/fbi-petraeus-shared-top-secret-info-with-reporters-224023

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-clinton-fbi-commentary/commentary-what-the-fbi-didnt-say-about-hillary-clintons-email-idUSKCN0ZM1TG