I'm sensitive to this viewpoint. However let's say you are running a company. There are a huge number of situations where secrecy is necessary. Negotiations with an aquirer, pending layoffs, legal wrangling, customer pipeline, etc. If someone got a hold of this information and released it in an untimely way, they would be fired and possibly prosecuted. I'm completely in favor of honesty and transparency but it is unfortunately not always the best policy.
In a corporate setting you're totally right that secrets may be necessary (not always, depending on your business model), but even then we're talking about witholding information and not deception. In fact you can be totally up front about the fact that you have trade secrets, and while some people may criticize that, I won't be amoung them.
