Confidentiality, Conflicts of Interest, and Occupational Crime in Engineering
Introduction to Professional Confidentiality
Definition of Professionalism: A distinguishing characteristic of a professional is the obligation to keep specific information regarding a client secret and confidential.
Established Principles in Various Fields:
Medicine: It is a well-organized principle that a patient's medical information must remain confidential.
Law: Defense attorneys are legally obligated to keep client information confidential.
Education: Teachers have a duty to keep the personal information of their students confidential.
Confidentiality in Engineering: Engineers maintain a professional obligation to keep the proprietary information of both their companies and their clients confidential.
Purpose of Confidentiality: Confidential information refers to data intended to be kept secret to ensure an organization runs effectively.
Key Terms Associated with Confidential Information
Privileged Information:
This is information available only on the basis of a special privilege.
An example includes an employee working on a special assignment.
It encompasses information that is not yet public or widely known within an organization.
Proprietary Information:
This refers to information owned by a company.
It involves new knowledge established within the organization that is legally protected from use by external parties.
Trade Secrets:
Trade secrets are given limited legal protection against abuse (mistreatment) by employees or contractors.
Examples of trade secrets include:
Product designs.
Technical processes.
Plant facilities.
Quality control methods.
Customer lists.
Business plans.
Patents:
Patents differ from trade secrets because they provide legal protection for specific products being manufactured and sold.
They prevent competitors from selling these products without written permission from the patent holder.
While patents protect the manufacture/sale, trade secret legal protection is limited to maintaining relationships of trust and confidentiality.
Engineering Information and Confidentiality Types
Rationale for Confidentiality in Engineering:
Most engineering information directly impacts a company's ability to compete in the marketplace.
Competitors could use such information to capture the market share of the company.
Types of Confidential Information:
Obvious Information of Confidentiality: Includes test results, raw data, information regarding unreleased products, product designs, product formulae, and technical processes.
Information of Lesser Confidentiality: Includes business-related data such as the number of employees on a project, the identity of suppliers, marketing strategies, production costs, and production yields.
Justification and Limits of Confidentiality
Moral Considerations (Level 1):
Respect for Autonomy: Recognizes the freedom and self-determination of individuals and corporations to exercise legitimate control over their private information.
Respect for Promises: Focuses on the promises made between employers and employees; employees are expected not to disclose promises made to their employer.
Respect for Public or Social Well-being: Essential for establishing trust in professional relationships. For example, patients are only comfortable discussing personal problems with doctors because they trust their private information will not be revealed.
Ethical Theories (Level 2):
Rights-based Theories: Justify confidentiality obligations by appealing to basic human rights, though this can extend to cases like whistle-blowing.
Duty-based Theories: Emphasize the fundamental duties of employers and employees to uphold the trust placed in them.
Utilitarian Theories:
Rule-Utilitarianism: Justifies rules of confidentiality only if those rules yield the "most good" for the general public.
Act-Utilitarianism: Focuses on individual specific situations where an employer determines if certain matters should count as confidential.
Conflicts of Interest (COI)
Definition: A conflict of interest occurs when employees have a personal interest they wish to pursue that prevents them from meeting their obligation to serve the interests of their clients or employers.
General Example: An electronics engineer working for a state department of communications may have a financial interest in a company that is currently bidding to supply instruments to that department.
Types of Conflicts of Interest:
Actual Conflicts of Interest: Results in a loss of objectivity in decision-making and a failure to faithfully discharge professional duties due to weakened judgment.
Potential Conflicts of Interest: Relates to the boundary between gifts and bribes. For instance, an engineer may gradually become friends with a supplier, or they may accept large gifts from a supplier.
Apparent Conflicts of Interest: Occurs in situations that look like a conflict even if they are not; for example, if an engineer is paid a percentage of the design cost, there may appear to be no incentive for the engineer to cut costs.
Bribes and Kickbacks:
A bribe is a large sum of money or substantial goods offered to gain a contract.
Kickbacks are another form of bribing.
Bribes are considered both illegal and immoral.
Other Categories of Interest:
Interest in Other Companies: Having a stake in a competitor's or sub-contractor's business.
Moonlighting: The act of an individual working for two different companies simultaneously.
Insider Information: Using sensitive "inside" information to gain a personal advantage or to launch a new business opportunity.
Occupational Crime
Definition: Illegal acts made possible through a person’s lawful employment. This involves the secret violation of laws governing work activities.
White-Collar Crime: Occupational crimes carried out by office workers and professionals. These are often specific instances of conflicts of interest.
Motivations: Personal greed, corporate ambition, and misguided company loyalty. If a crime is done to promote the employer's interest, it is still categorized as Occupational Crime.
Industrial Espionage (Example 1):
Refers to industrial spying.
Example: Computer industries in Northern California (Silicon Valley) produce integrated-circuit microprocessors and computer chips. This area has a high rate of industrial espionage.
Reasons for Espionage in the Chip Industry:
Development is extremely competitive and fast-moving.
Manufacturing computer chips is incredibly expensive.
The parts are physically small and easy to remove from offices secretly.
Law enforcement is often ineffective.
Secrets are often sold through agents rather than the original employees directly.
Price Fixing (Example 2):
Companies jointly setting prices.
The American Government passed the "Shorman Antitrust Act" in the year to prohibit this practice.
Endangering Lives (Example 3):
Employers may expose workers to hazards but escape criminal penalties by paying compensation.
The Asbestos Industry Case Study:
Asbestos fibers cause asbestosis (a lung disease) and mesothelioma (an incurable disease).
In America, between the years and , more than asbestos workers were affected.
More than worker deaths were recorded.
Professional and Human Rights of Engineers
Human Rights: Rights possessed by virtue of being a person or moral agent. This includes the right to pursue legitimate personal interests, the right to privacy, and the right to make a living.
Professional Rights: Rights possessed by virtue of special moral responsibilities as a professional.
Right to form and express professional judgment without obstacles.
Right to refuse participation in unethical activities.
Right to express professional judgment, including the right to disagree.
Right to warn the public about dangers.
Right to fair recognition and remuneration.
Right to talk publicly about the job.
Right to engage in professional societies.
Basic Rights of Professional Conscience:
The most fundamental right of an engineer.
The right to do what is agreed by everyone as obligatory for a professional.
It is a liberty or "negative right," meaning others are obligated not to interfere with its exercise.
Specific Professional Rights:
Institutional Recognition Rights: Moral rights should be respected and recognized by employers.
Right of Conscientiousness Refusal: The right to refuse unethical behavior. No employer can force falsifying data, forging documents, altering test results, lying, or bribery.
Right to Recognition: Includes fair monetary and non-monetary remuneration for achievements, pursued cooperatively between employer and employee.
Theories Justifying Professional Rights:
Right Ethics: Public has human rights to be warned of technological dangers.
Duty Ethics: Employers have a duty not to block engineers trying to meet obligations to the public.
Utilitarianism: The greatest good is served when engineers follow their obligations to the public.
Employee Rights and Privacy
General Employee Rights: Legal or moral rights associated with being an employee, including the right to disobey unethical instructions and express dissatisfaction with company policies without retaliation.
Choice of Outside Activities: Employees can generally engage in non-work activities without punishment. However, limits exist:
If the activity leads to a violation of duties.
If the activity forms a conflict of interest.
If the activity damages the employer's interests outside of office hours.
Right to Privacy: Employers should not interfere in private lives, though conflicts often arise in the following scenarios:
Questioning a potential cashier about criminal records.
Conducting personality tests for sales department appointments.
Supervisors searching a subordinate's desk without permission.
Fixing hidden cameras in the workplace to prevent theft.
Philosophical Views on Privacy Rights:
Utilitarian: Such activities might make the worker unhappy, reducing overall utility.
Duty Ethicist: Argues these activities break the duty to respect people and demoralize them.
Right to Privacy Limit: The right is fundamentally limited by the legitimate actions and needs of the employer.
References
Mike W. Martin and Roland Schinzinger, "Ethics in Engineering", Tata Mc Graw Hill, New Delhi, .
Govindarajan M, Natarajan S, Senthil Kumar V. S, “Engineering Ethics", Prentice Hall of India, New Delhi, .
Charles B. Fleddermann, “Engineering Ethics", Pearson Prentice Hall, New Jersey, .