IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 77

quality and privacy of information
are likely to arise. for example,
the disclosure of credit information
raises these issues. Credit details
are mainly collected and processed
by financial organizations in China.
Personal credit databases began
operating in January 2006 whereby
340 million personal credit reports
were generated. Nowadays, credit
reports mainly include basic per-
sonal information (such as name,
identity card, address, place of
business, etc.), personal loan infor-
mation, personal credit card infor-
mation, credit report query records,
and so on [6]. It is evident that a
credit report contains a lot of per-
sonal data (e.g. what products and
services were purchased), so it is
the responsibility of financial orga-
nizations to protect the citizen's
privacy. The Chinese Provisional
Rules on Management of Individual
Credit Information Database (2005)
attaches great importance to confi-
dentiality of personal credit infor-
mation, and contains penalties with
respect to the poor security man-
agement of credit information. But
it does not clearly stipulate or regu-
late which credit information falls
within the private category and that
data which is less sensitive. The
question of how to balance the
reuse of PSI and at the same time
protect the privacy rights of citi-
zens has received substantial atten-
tion [7]. Once the personal credit
information system is misused, an
individual's privacy is encroached
upon and cannot be reclaimed with-
out compensation. Bigger prob-
lems arise when accuracy of data
is brought into question as agen-
cies cross-match individual details
and one database contains updated
information, and the other does not.
Inaccurate assessment can affect
people's livelihoods directly, not
just their privacy.
Ethical Issues of Public
Access to PSI
Reusable public sector informa-
tion is derived mainly in two ways:

information disclosed actively by
public sector agencies and infor-
mation disclosed passively upon
application. When users access
information upon application, vari-
ous kinds of ethical issues arise.
These are:
1) Privacy and global ethics
should be balanced. Global
ethics is nothing but the nec-
essary minimum of common
values, standards, and basic
attitudes [8]. Global eth-
ics requires that whether at a
worldwide, national, or local
level, men and women are
dependent on shared basic eth-
ical values, criteria, and atti-
tudes for peaceful coexistence
[9]. So, the protection of basic
public interests is expected
practice, but this too may be
in conflict with privacy rights.
for example, the Chinese Cen-
ter for Disease Control holds a
great deal of patient informa-
tion, and prohibits anyone from
disseminating the information
of this kind due to patient pri-
vacy. The Chinese Regulations on AIDS Prevention and
Treatment (2006) states: "[s]
taff in medical care and health
institutions shall inform the
person who is diagnosed as
HIV positive or AIDS patient;
when the person has no or
limited behavioral capacity,
medical staff shall inform
their guardian." Unless an
individual provided consent,
any information or materials
about them must not be dis-
closed to anyone. In fact, most
persons would rather conceal
an illness, rather than make it
public to the world as this may
have serious repercussions for
their family. Doctors may feel
they have no recourse but to
share this information with
the patient's spouse for health
safety reasons. A dilemma
arises here if we push privacy
to the extreme going against
global ethics. Therefore, in

IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

|

fALL 2013

China at least, it is deemed
necessary to inform a patient's
spouse of a long-term illness,
considering the protection of
the legitimate rights of family
members.
2) Some sectors deliberately set
artificial barriers to access-
ing information. With official
application to access data by
citizens, public sector agen-
cies should disclose requested
information in a convenient
manner. But this is not always
the outcome in China. for
example, on November 29,
2007, Yulai Yuan together
with a rural farmer Linxing
Xu visited the Shanghai Envi-
ronmental Protection Bureau
seeking to access to an envi-
ronmental report and examina-
tion opinion of a transmission
project. After filling out an
application form, they were
provided with a receipt several
days later, stating the Envi-
ronmental Protection Bureau
would reply directly to them by
December 18. On December
18, 2007, the pair was notified
by the Environmental Protec-
tion Bureau that Linxing Xu
had permission to do a "look
up at the Shanghai Environ-
mental Protection Bureau with
identification card." Though
Linxing Xu negotiated with
the Environmental Protec-
tion Bureau several times, the
Agency insisted that it would
not provide written documen-
tation. "Reproduction is a
mere technology, but it tends
to become a large barrier for
information disclosure," Yulai
Yuan was quoted as saying.
When he looked up files in the
Zhejiang Province Department
of Land Resources, the staff
only allowed him to reproduce
things by hand, as mechanical
reproduction of materials was
not allowed. So, he spent a day
and a half copying materials
from an Approved Document
|

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