Confidentiality Non-Applicability To Engineer B Safety Code Violations
P · Principle
Individual
http://proethica.org/ontology/case/181#Confidentiality_Non-Applicability_To_Engineer_B_Safety_Code_Violations
Properties
Instance of
ConfidentialityNon-ApplicabilitytoPublicDangerDisclosure
http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#ConfidentialityNon-ApplicabilitytoPublicDangerDisclosure
Applied to
Appropriate governmental or regulatory authorities
Engineer B's safety code violations
Balancing with
Peer Review Confidentiality Agreement Obligation
Concrete expression
Engineer A's confidentiality agreement does not bar disclosure of Engineer B's safety code violations to appropriate authorities, because the confidentiality obligation was designed to protect legitimate business and technical information — not to shield conduct that endangers public health, safety, and welfare
Confidence
0.95
Importance
high
Interpretation
The confidentiality agreement's scope does not encompass safety-threatening violations; disclosure of such violations to proper authorities is not a breach of the agreement in the ethically relevant sense because the agreement cannot legitimately extend to protecting public dangers
Invoked by
Engineer A Peer Review Safety Violation Discovering Engineer
Tension resolution
The confidentiality obligation is reinterpreted as inapplicable to public danger disclosure; Engineer A's disclosure of safety code violations is not a violation of the confidentiality agreement's legitimate purpose
Source Evidence
Source text
Engineer A discovers that Engineer B's work may be in violation of state and local safety code requirements and could endanger public health, safety, and welfare
Text references
Engineer A agrees not to disclose confidential information involving peer-reviewed firms
Engineer A discovers that Engineer B's work may be in violation of state and local safety code requirements and could endanger public health, safety, and welfare
TTL
@prefix case181: <http://proethica.org/ontology/case/181#> .
@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#> .
case181:Confidentiality_Non-Applicability_To_Engineer_B_Safety_Code_Violations a proeth:ConfidentialityNon-ApplicabilitytoPublicDangerDisclosure,
owl:NamedIndividual ;
rdfs:label "Confidentiality Non-Applicability To Engineer B Safety Code Violations" ;
proeth:appliedto "Appropriate governmental or regulatory authorities",
"Engineer B's safety code violations" ;
proeth:balancingwith "Peer Review Confidentiality Agreement Obligation" ;
proeth:conceptCategory "Principle" ;
proeth:concreteexpression "Engineer A's confidentiality agreement does not bar disclosure of Engineer B's safety code violations to appropriate authorities, because the confidentiality obligation was designed to protect legitimate business and technical information — not to shield conduct that endangers public health, safety, and welfare" ;
proeth:confidence "0.95" ;
proeth:discoveredincase "181" ;
proeth:discoveredinpass "2" ;
proeth:discoveredinsection "facts" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredat "2026-03-01T09:10:11.352092+00:00" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredincase "181" ;
proeth:generatedattime "2026-03-01T09:10:11.352092+00:00" ;
proeth:importance "high" ;
proeth:interpretation "The confidentiality agreement's scope does not encompass safety-threatening violations; disclosure of such violations to proper authorities is not a breach of the agreement in the ethically relevant sense because the agreement cannot legitimately extend to protecting public dangers" ;
proeth:invokedby "Engineer A Peer Review Safety Violation Discovering Engineer" ;
proeth:principleclass "Confidentiality Non-Applicability to Public Danger Disclosure" ;
proeth:sourcetext "Engineer A discovers that Engineer B's work may be in violation of state and local safety code requirements and could endanger public health, safety, and welfare" ;
proeth:tensionresolution "The confidentiality obligation is reinterpreted as inapplicable to public danger disclosure; Engineer A's disclosure of safety code violations is not a violation of the confidentiality agreement's legitimate purpose" ;
proeth:textreferences "Engineer A agrees not to disclose confidential information involving peer-reviewed firms",
"Engineer A discovers that Engineer B's work may be in violation of state and local safety code requirements and could endanger public health, safety, and welfare" ;
proeth:wasattributedto "Case 181 Extraction" ;
prov:generatedAtTime "2026-03-01T09:25:33.352759"^^xsd:dateTime ;
prov:wasGeneratedBy "ProEthica Case 181 Extraction" .
Metadata
Extraction details
Discovered in case
181
Discovered in pass
2
Discovered in section
facts
First discovered
2026-03-01T09:10:11.352092+00:00
First case
181
Generated
2026-03-01T09:10:11.352092+00:00
Attributed to
Case 181 Extraction
Generated
2026-03-01T09:25:33.352759
Generated by
ProEthica Case 181 Extraction