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A Conceptual Framework for Information Quality and Information Pollution

Notes of 4 April 2021, rev. 25 April 2021

Roger Clarke **

© Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, 2021

This document is at http://rogerclarke.com/SOS/IQLO.html

Background

Lee Bygrave, Director of the Centre for Computers & Law at the Uni. of Oslo, is developing a project provisionally entitled 'Law in an Era of Information Pollution'.

Lee envisages the project drawing on a conceptual framework for Information Pollution and, concomitantly, Information Quality. Working definitions of key terms are:

• Information Quality is the characteristics or attributes of information which bear on its worth for given purposes, persons and organisations;
• Information Pollution is the production and dissemination of false, misleading or otherwise inaccurate information, and comprises:
  • Mis-Information, which is information that is unintentionally false, misleading or inaccurate, and not created to cause harm; and
  • Dis-Information, which is information that is deliberately false, misleading or inaccurate and created to cause harm;
• Information Overload refers to a state in which the volume of data in a person's field of view overwhelms their ability to assimilate it and make decisions based on it. (The term was popularised in Toffler's 1970 book 'Future Shock'). This is a key factor in people applying insufficient scepticism and quality testing to propositions that they become aware of, resulting in much greater harm arising from low-quality information than would otherwise be the case

These Notes draw together some initial sources, with a view to developing a working paper for the Uni of Oslo project.

The primary source is work I've conducted over the last 30 years, which I'm consolidating into a an emergent working paper with the provisional title 'Pragmatic Ontology and Epistemology for Information Systems Research and Practice'.

Some further resources relevant to this work are as follows:

• Clarke R. (2016) 'Big Data, Big Risks' Information Systems Journal 26, 1 (January 2016) 77-90, PrePrint at http://rogerclarke.com/EC/BDBR.html
• Clarke R. (2016) 'Quality Assurance for Security Applications of Big Data' Proc. EISIC'16, Uppsala, 17-19 August 2016, PrePrint at http://rogerclarke.com/EC/BDQAS.html
• Clarke R. (2018) 'Guidelines for the Responsible Application of Data Analytics' Computer Law & Security Review 34, 3 (May-Jun 2018) 467-476, PrePrint at http://rogerclarke.com/EC/GDA.html
• This slide-set for a lecture at ANU embeds the quality issues (slides 3-6) within the broad topics of 'data protection', risk assessment (slides 8-15) and 'data privacy' (slides 16-36): http://www.rogerclarke.com/DV/COMP2420-2-4up.pdf

Author Affiliations

Roger Clarke is Principal of Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, Canberra. He is also a Visiting Professor associated with the Allens Hub for Technology, Law and Innovation in UNSW Law, and a Visiting Professor in the Research School of Computer Science at the Australian National University.

The content and infrastructure for these community service pages are provided by Roger Clarke through his consultancy company, Xamax. From the site's beginnings in August 1994 until February 2009, the infrastructure was provided by the Australian National University. During that time, the site accumulated close to 30 million hits. It passed 65 million in early 2021. Sponsored by the Gallery, Bunhybee Grasslands, the extended Clarke Family, Knights of the Spatchcock and their drummer

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Created: 4 April 2021 - Last Amended: 25 April 2021 by Roger Clarke - Site Last Verified: 15 February 2009
This document is at www.rogerclarke.com/SOS/IQLO.html
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