Governments collect, process and use information. Part of statecraft is what a writer on war has called ‘the central importance of knowing, both in general and in particular’. In Deutsch's phrase, systems of knowing are part of the ‘nerves of government’. Modern government has many such systems, most of them geared to routine functions: taxation, law-and-order, social security, vehicle licensing, and so on.

Other organizations also have their own information systems; and ‘intelligence’ is sometimes employed to describe them all, governmental and non-governmental, and the information they produce. ‘Business intelligence’ and ‘competitor intelligence’ are established parts of the private sector; ‘racing intelligence’ is designed to predict horse-racing results; other commercial information services have similar labels. Intelligence within large organizations has been called ‘the information – questions, insights, hypotheses, evidence – relevant to policy’. Even more broadly it has been argued that ‘social intelligence … is the process whereby a society, organization or individual acquires information in the widest sense, processes and evaluates it, stores it and uses it for action’ (emphasis added).

But ‘intelligence’ in government usually has a more restricted meaning than just information and information services. It has particular associations with international relations, defence, national security and secrecy, and with specialized institutions labelled ‘intelligence’.