IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 78

relating to land expropriation
[10]. It is clear that when some
public sector agencies release
information they neither com-
ply with basic ethica principles
nor ensure that information
can be conveniently accessed
by the public.

Ethical Issues of Using PSI
by Public Industries
As an example, in the field of sci-
entific research various kinds of
data about university outcomes are
reused to produce university rank-
ings. As university rankings and
their social influence increase, ethi-
cal and legal issues have emerged in
the compilation, publicity, and use
of university rankings, whose reli-
ability, validity, and social influence
gain the attention and careful scru-
tiny of observers [11].
The problems do not lie in
the comparison of various qual-
ity levels of universities, or in the
weighting of many different uni-
versities by the same value stan-
dard. It is fairly evident that the
academic community has recog-
nized the irrationality of particular
university rankings. Instead, the
problem mainly lies in that uni-
versity rankings attempt to be an
objective indicator through which
government funding is provided.
The public judge the quality of
education from some seemingly
undisclosed vested interests of the
producers of these rankings. So, it
can be said that university rankings
serve the interests of producers. As
a result, faculties and schools are
forced to adapt to them [12].

Ethical Issues of Using PSI
by Profit-Making Industries
When profit-making industries reuse
PSI, an ever greater number of ethi-
cal issues arise. Because the reuse
by profit-making industries mainly
aims to gain even more profit, one
can rightly assume that some infor-
mation ethics could be neglected.
1) On quality of information.
There is a well-known case
78

|

documented by Jiang [13] that
identified that due to inaccurate
information, an oil exploration
corporation drilled through a
neighboring oil tunnel. fortu-
nately, the oil well was deserted.
However if it was an active oil
well, pressure from the broken
pipe would have subsequently
caused a US$500 million loss
in investment on the well [13].
This was directly the result of
reusing inaccurate informa-
tion. Errors in information
may be introduced anywhere
in the process of production,
transmission, and use of the
data leading to even greater
repercussions in the quality of
information. Information of
good quality is then essential
for making decisions, increas-
ing productivity and economic
interests of enterprises [14].
2) On access to information. As an
example, in the medical indus-
try, the problem of informa-
tion accessibility is ubiquitous.
There exists asymmetrical and
incomplete drug information in
the process of drug consump-
tion. Doctors have an inherent
advantage relating to informa-
tion about medical care. On
the contrary, the majority of
patients are unable to judge the
quality of drugs owing to their
lack of professional knowledge,
and therefore, doctors play an
important role in the consump-
tion of particular drugs. Asym-
metrical and incomplete drug
information leads to the patient
being a passive consumer [15].
As the majority of consumers
just accept this information
passively, and they are unable
to acquire complete and accu-
rate information about their
own well-being.

Four Key Issues
By website investigation, it was
found that there were four key issues
pertaining to information ethics
(privacy, property, accuracy, and

accessibility) in the web site state-
ments of public sector agencies. No
doubt the ethical status of issues
related to the reuse of public sector
information is concerning, as found
using the case analysis approach.
faced with these ethical issues in the
reuse of PSI, the operation of infor-
mation ethics needs to be addressed
so that it is clear to all stakeholders.
When information ethics operates, it
relies on intangible and deep moral
forces formed by traditional custom,
public opinion, and moral sense, as
well as tangible and powerful mate-
rial forces formed by information
law, ethics training, ethics organi-
zation, professional ethics norms,
supervision and management of eth-
ics, and more. These material forces
rely on social intervention to rein-
force information ethics. Through
reasonable enforcement of systems,
public sector agencies and users can
assure that their information activi-
ties are suitable and guided by infor-
mation ethics norms, which can gain
public recognition [16].
Increasingly the trend towards
the reuse of public sector infor-
mation is gaining momentum, but
now is the time to address some
fundamental issues with respect
to information ethics in China. If
we can anticipate some of the ethi-
cal challenges prior to reuse, then
we can reduce the potential legal
risks and moral criticisms. More-
over, the end result is more robust
value-added products, as is the citi-
zen response knowing that data is
both accessible by them and also
that data handling practices respect
fundamental rights to access.

Author Information
Ying Wang is a Candidate at the
School of Information Manage-
ment, Wuhan University, Wuhan
City, Hubei Province, P. R. China,
430072. Email: yingwang_whu@
yahoo.com.

Acknowledgment
The author would like to acknowl-
edge the enthusiastic copyediting

IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

|

fALL 2013



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013

IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - Cover1
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - Cover2
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 1
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 2
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 3
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 4
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 5
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 6
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 7
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 8
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 9
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 10
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 11
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 12
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 13
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 14
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 15
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 16
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 17
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 18
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 19
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 20
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 21
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 22
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 23
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 24
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 25
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 26
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 27
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 28
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 29
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 30
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 31
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 32
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 33
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 34
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 35
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 36
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 37
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 38
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 39
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 40
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 41
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 42
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 43
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 44
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 45
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 46
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 47
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 48
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 49
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 50
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 51
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 52
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 53
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 54
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 55
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 56
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 57
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 58
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 59
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 60
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 61
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 62
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 63
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 64
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 65
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 66
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 67
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 68
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 69
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 70
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 71
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 72
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 73
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 74
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 75
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 76
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 77
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 78
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 79
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 80
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - Cover3
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - Cover4
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_september2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_june2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_march2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_december2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_september2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_june2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_march2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_december2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_september2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_june2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_march2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_december2020
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_september2020
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_june2020
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_march2020
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_december2019
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_september2019
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_june2019
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_march2019
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_december2018
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_september2018
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_june2018
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_march2018
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_winter2017
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_fall2017
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_summer2017
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_spring2017
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_winter2016
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_fall2016
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_summer2016
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_spring2016
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_winter2015
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_fall2015
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_summer2015
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_spring2015
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_winter2014
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_fall2014
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_summer2014
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_spring2014
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_winter2013
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_fall2013
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_summer2013
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_spring2013
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com