You are correct that it is not a law. If you, in a conversation, were to say "permission" in place of "authorization", you'll broadly be understood. However, f

You are correct that it is not a law. If you, in a conversation, were to say "permission" in place of "authorization", you'll broadly be understood. However, for as long as I've been in the business, those terms refer to different things. That is how it is taught in school, how it is referred to in documentation, how you have to understand them when you write your CISSP, how various governing bodies separate and refer to the ideas, etc. During an audit, if you are asked for your authorization policy and you give them a list of file permissions, you are failing your audit (well, not really, but you'll probably get a scoff and a condescending clarification of what the auditor wants -- and it is never good when an auditor becomes condescending). In a professional context, permissions are a specific technical enforcement of an authorization policy.