Conflict of Interest Avoidance Through Confidentiality Maintenance
P · Principle
Individual
http://proethica.org/ontology/case/106#Conflict_of_Interest_Avoidance_Through_Confidentiality_Maintenance
Properties
Instance of
ConflictofInterestDisclosureEvolutionPrinciple
http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#ConflictofInterestDisclosureEvolutionPrinciple
Applied to
Company X Confidential Design Information Submitting Company
Company Y Competitor-Employing Private Engineering Company
Balancing with
Post-Public-Employment Confidential Information Non-Use Prohibition
Concrete expression
Engineer A's access to Company X's confidential information creates a potential conflict of interest in employment with Company Y — the ethical management of this conflict is through confidentiality maintenance rather than prohibition of employment, reflecting the profession's evolved approach to conflict management
Confidence
0.82
Importance
medium
Interpretation
The conflict arising from prior confidential access is managed through behavioral constraints (non-disclosure) rather than categorical prohibition of employment, consistent with the profession's shift from absolute avoidance to disclosure-and-management
Invoked by
Engineer A Confidentiality-Bound Government Agency Engineer
Tension resolution
The conflict is resolved through the constraint that confidential information not be disclosed or used, rather than through prohibition of competitive employment
Source Evidence
Source text
The aforementioned cases represent the longstanding BER positions relating to the question of conflicts of interest and the duty of engineers who gain, or are perceived to have gained, access to knowledge that may be advantageous to one client and disadvantageous to another
Text references
Obviously, the appropriate ethical course of action is dictated by the particular facts and circumstances of a case
The aforementioned cases represent the longstanding BER positions relating to the question of conflicts of interest and the duty of engineers who gain, or are perceived to have gained, access to knowledge that may be advantageous to one client and disadvantageous to another
TTL
@prefix case106: <http://proethica.org/ontology/case/106#> .
@prefix owl: <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> .
@prefix proeth: <http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#> .
@prefix prov: <http://www.w3.org/ns/prov#> .
@prefix rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .
case106:Conflict_of_Interest_Avoidance_Through_Confidentiality_Maintenance a proeth:ConflictofInterestDisclosureEvolutionPrinciple,
owl:NamedIndividual ;
rdfs:label "Conflict of Interest Avoidance Through Confidentiality Maintenance" ;
proeth:appliedto "Company X Confidential Design Information Submitting Company",
"Company Y Competitor-Employing Private Engineering Company" ;
proeth:balancingwith "Post-Public-Employment Confidential Information Non-Use Prohibition" ;
proeth:conceptCategory "Principle" ;
proeth:concreteexpression "Engineer A's access to Company X's confidential information creates a potential conflict of interest in employment with Company Y — the ethical management of this conflict is through confidentiality maintenance rather than prohibition of employment, reflecting the profession's evolved approach to conflict management" ;
proeth:confidence "0.82" ;
proeth:discoveredincase "106" ;
proeth:discoveredinpass "2" ;
proeth:discoveredinsection "discussion" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredat "2026-02-28T00:47:28.276757+00:00" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredincase "106" ;
proeth:generatedattime "2026-02-28T00:47:28.276757+00:00" ;
proeth:importance "medium" ;
proeth:interpretation "The conflict arising from prior confidential access is managed through behavioral constraints (non-disclosure) rather than categorical prohibition of employment, consistent with the profession's shift from absolute avoidance to disclosure-and-management" ;
proeth:invokedby "Engineer A Confidentiality-Bound Government Agency Engineer" ;
proeth:principleclass "Conflict of Interest Disclosure Evolution Principle" ;
proeth:sourcetext "The aforementioned cases represent the longstanding BER positions relating to the question of conflicts of interest and the duty of engineers who gain, or are perceived to have gained, access to knowledge that may be advantageous to one client and disadvantageous to another" ;
proeth:tensionresolution "The conflict is resolved through the constraint that confidential information not be disclosed or used, rather than through prohibition of competitive employment" ;
proeth:textreferences "Obviously, the appropriate ethical course of action is dictated by the particular facts and circumstances of a case",
"The aforementioned cases represent the longstanding BER positions relating to the question of conflicts of interest and the duty of engineers who gain, or are perceived to have gained, access to knowledge that may be advantageous to one client and disadvantageous to another" ;
proeth:wasattributedto "Case 106 Extraction" ;
prov:generatedAtTime "2026-02-28T00:58:47.906696"^^xsd:dateTime ;
prov:wasGeneratedBy "ProEthica Case 106 Extraction" .
Metadata
Extraction details
Discovered in case
106
Discovered in pass
2
Discovered in section
discussion
First discovered
2026-02-28T00:47:28.276757+00:00
First case
106
Generated
2026-02-28T00:47:28.276757+00:00
Attributed to
Case 106 Extraction
Generated
2026-02-28T00:58:47.906696
Generated by
ProEthica Case 106 Extraction