Information rights: Trust and human dignity in e-government

The words “rights”, “trust”, “human dignity” and even “government” have widely varying meanings and connotations, differing across time, languages and cultures. Concepts of rights, trust and human dignity have been examined for centuries in great depth by ethicists and other philosophers and by religious thinkers, and more recently by social scientists and, especially as related to information, by information scientists. Similarly, discussions of government are well documented in writings back to Plato and Aristotle, with investigations of electronic government (often referred to as e-government) dating back only to the early 1990s, with the advent of the Internet and the World Wide Web. At first, e-government was described in glowing, positive terms. Little, if any, attention was paid to two critical questions: Will people trust e-government? and, How will cultural differences affect individuals’ trust in government and their perceptions of the government’s effect on their human dignity? Examinations of trust and distrust by individuals within organisations have addressed questions of motives and intentions, expectations of behaviour, protection of interests, confidence in the accuracy and reliability of information, vulnerability, and reciprocity, among other complex topics. This chapter provides a very brief overview of some of the notions of trust and distrust, concentrating on those concerning trust as it relates to notions of power, trust in organisations, and trust in information and information systems as one part of a framework to address the question of trust in e-government. It also makes a few recommendations on how to build citizen-centric e-government to ensure information rights through a focus on human dignity, fundamental human rights, and earning trust.