On November 4th, President Obama signed an executive order requiring agencies to use one term only -- “Controlled Unclassified Information,” (CUI) -- to mark documents that they believe should be protected, but not designated as “classified.”   The order establishes a program for managing this information that emphasizes the openness and uniformity of Government-wide practice.  Prior to the order, several federal agencies used their own system of approximately 120 different markings in order to categorize and protect information.  These agency-specific policies led to unclear and sometimes unnecessarily restrictive dissemination policies, and created impediments to authorized information sharing. 

The order can be viewed here.