From The Short Names blog: A lost laptop computer containing the personal information of Starbucks employees prompted a class action lawsuit against Starbucks (in Washington). The lawsuit received some coverage (see, for example Bob McMillan here, and Starbucks Gossip here), but the trial court’s dismissal of the lawsuit received almost no coverage. (I mentioned the…
Author: Dissent
NE: Hackers Breach State Database
A hacker has broken into the Nebraska Worker’s Compensation database, prompting an FBI investigation and an effort to contact those who may be affected. Several thousand people could be affected by the breach, which was discovered last week when the state’s chief information officer noticed an unusual amount of Internet traffic traversing the Worker’s Compensation…
Update: Stolen BCBS hard drives had data on 2 million insured
This is a follow-up to an incident first reported here. Dennis Ferrier reports: One of Tennessee’s largest holders of personal information confirms that an October theft from a Chattanooga office affects about 2 million of its clients. Blue Cross Blue Shield said 68 computer hard drives that contained Social Security numbers and other sensitive information…
Health Industry Winning Round On Privacy Of Digital Health Records
Emma Schwartz of the Huffington Post Investigative Fund writes: The tug-of-war over a little-known federal privacy rule–which has drawn in Congress, regulators and an array of interest groups–highlights the behind-the-scenes activity touched off by the government’s effort to spend some $45 billion in economic stimulus funds to push medical data online. Federal regulators are working…
Webinar on Tuesday: Taking a Pulse on HITECH, Are Hospitals and Business Associates Ready?
From HIMSS: Taking a Pulse on HITECH, Are Hospitals and Business Associates Ready? Date: 11/17/2009 2:00:00 PM-3:00:00 PM Registration Information Description: Webinar Times 2:00 pm Eastern Standard Time 1:00 pm Central Standard Time 12:00 pm Mountain Standard Time 11:00 am Pacific Standard Time Session Abstract This webinar will discuss the findings from a survey of…
Privacy and Perfectibility
“At the World Future Society’s 2009 conference, bioethicist Arthur L. Caplan explains that eliminating the right to privacy carried in Roe v. Wade could potentially allow government to mandate the use “designer baby” technologies. For more information about the World Future Society, visit http://www.wfs.org”