Information is empowering

• Information: Facts provided or learned about something or someone. 
• Knowledge: Information and skills acquired through experience or education. The theoretical or practical understanding of a subject.
• Information is only a means to empowerment. Knowledge is power and sharing knowledge is empowering. 
• Information is free. Knowledge is not.
• Information is empowering. It can make us stronger, more confident, more in control and more able to claim our rights. It enables us to grow and learn. It helps us to make good decisions, engage with each other, build knowledge, create informed communities, connect globally, and in many other ways. 
• Information provides individuals with knowledge to address public issues, scrutinize government and become active participants in the democratic process. It reveals and clarifies the basis for government decisions, discloses environmental and health dangers and sheds light on error, mismanagement and illegal activities.
• Facts and figures doesn't speak for themselves. They have to be examined and interpreted by reason. Information results in improved records management, prompts routine disclosure of information, and results in better government services and efficiencies.
• Unless information is organized, processed, and available to the right people in a format for decision making, it is a burden, not a benefit.
• Information is power, but interpretation is more powerful. Data taken out of context can have unintended consequences. Transparency alone is not the great equalizer. When we're overloaded with information, wisdom is obscured.  

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; 
this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, 
receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers 
... United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights

In common use almost every word has many shades of meaning, 

and therefore needs to be interpreted by the context ... Alfred Marshall

Why we bend rules?

Even most honest among us lie, cheat or push boundaries now and then. In everyday transgressions character isn’t the real driver; situational forces are. Powerful people break the rules; breaking rules makes one seem more powerful.

• Without the intelligence to create the rules, we would have no rules to break.
• Being able to create and  follow rules is one of the things that separates humans from the rest of the animals. Being able to create and follow your own rules is what makes you intelligent. Without the intelligence to create the rules, we would have no rules to break.
• Intelligent people generally don’t bend rules, as they are aware that the rules are made for good purpose.
• Breaking the rules all the time and getting away with out getting caught doesn't make any one intelligent or smart.
• Intelligent people are those who have mastered the rules, practiced the rules, and by overcoming laziness they have perfected their interpretation of the rules.
• At work, there are rules for a reason. The rules exist to keep things moving and to make sure everyone else can do their jobs too. Everyone knows that rules need to be broken sometimes. Flexibility allows for you to actually be a better manager.
• Rich are more likely to flout rules or cheat for making more money.
• Most entrepreneurs succeed by bending the rules. Where is the line between gall and fraud?
• The man driving powerful and expensive SUV is more likely to flout traffic rules than a driver of a compact sedan.
• In its modest form rule breaking might be healthy. The more one wins the greater the confidence boost, the bigger the risks and so on. But at a certain point, risk taking can become irrational, reckless & ruthless and could cause ethical numbing and results in self destruction.
• If your tribe downloads pirated music, sells dubious stocks or accept bribes, you are likely to go with the flow and cover up for the peers.
• Kids who cheat on the high school exams are three times as likely in adulthood to lie to a customer or inflate an insurance claim compared with non-cheaters.
• The real threat is the slippery slope that minor transgressions can snowball into cataclysmic ones. Imagine Bernie Madaoff  or Ramalinga Raju thinking, this just once. And eventually they just don't think about it. Rule breaking worsens over time. 
• It was like riding a tiger, not knowing how to get off without being eaten - Chairman of Satyam Computer Services B. Ramalinga Raju described his situation and referring to the widening gap between the real and artificial numbers in the company’s books.
• When people sign an ethics pledge at the beginning rather than at the end of job applications or tax forms - before there is an opportunity to cheat - they are significantly less likely to be dishonest.
• It is much easier to be a saint in theory than in practice. At the end of the day, you have to live with your conscience – and the law.

Every person learns at some point you don't know what you don't know.

If a million people do a wrong thing, it is still a wrong thing.

When you're the only sane person, you look like the only insane person.

Rules are framed for orderly behavior of society. Rule breakers, intentional or otherwise, must be penalized and punished to avoid chaos. Good people watch their actions continuously and regret any wrongdoings and avoid recurrences. Those who enjoy first violation of rules will commit bigger and end up as bad guys and when caught will face law, penalties & jail. Bending the rules seems to have heroism and fun but it ends up facing embarrassment sooner or later apart from character destruction. Never go with the flow of wrong doers who will get caught some day. People following rules all the times seldom ends up in wrongdoings.