Confidential communications.

Except by permission of the client for whom a certificate or permit holder performs a service or the heir, successor or personal representative of the client, a certificate holder shall not voluntarily disclose information communicated to him by the client relating to and in connection with a service rendered to the client by him. Such information shall be deemed confidential; provided that nothing in this section shall prohibit the disclosure of information required to be disclosed by a standard of the public accounting profession in reporting on the examination of a financial statement or prohibit disclosure in a court proceeding, in an investigation or proceeding pursuant to the 1999 Public Accountancy Act, in an ethical investigation conducted by a private professional organization or in the course of a peer review, or to another person active in the organization performing a service for that client on a need-to-know basis or to a person in the entity who needs this information for the sole purpose of assuring quality control.