The Oxford English Dictionary in Holmer (nd: 3) defines accuracy as concerned with the truth. Thus when a message is inaccurate, it does not confirm the truth, and this has the potential to create serious ethical and legal problems. It is undeniable that information has the capacity to unfavorably complicate people’s lives, especially when the information upon which lives depend is inaccurate (Mason, 1986). The author believes that the main questions arising from the ethical issue of accuracy are: Who is responsible for the authenticity, fidelity and accuracy of information? Who is to be held accountable for errors in information? And how is the injured party to be made whole? Britz (1996:78) believes that technology has a great impact on quality, especially with specific reference to the accuracy of information. This also applies, among others, to the gathering and processing of information. Technology, for example, is increasingly used to assist human observation, and is regarded as a more dependable and truthful observer. Britz (1996) is, however, of the opinion that the widespread assumption that technology is always right does not take into account the domino effect that comes into operation when a computer multiplies “one hundred percent correctly” a string of factual and other errors in a document. This potentially has widespread implications on the handling of a person’s private and other personal information, and is of special relevance in cases where important decisions are based on technology-generated information, which could be inaccurate and thus not true.
