Last week, this site reported on a story from Times Online about the new Lucid Intelligence database of identity details that had been found up for sale by cybercriminals. The database consists of 120 million records on 40 million people worldwide, compiled by identity theft expert Colin Holder and others. Users can conduct a free…
Author: Dissent
Musings on privacy issues in health research involving disaggregate geographic data about individuals
Maged N Kamel Boulos, Andrew J Curtis, and Philip AbdelMalik International Journal of Health Geographics 2009, 8:46doi:10.1186/1476-072X-8-46 Published: 20 July 2009 Abstract (provisional) This paper offers a state-of-the-art overview of the intertwined privacy, confidentiality, and security issues that are commonly encountered in health research involving disaggregate geographic data about individuals. Key definitions are provided, along…
Deborah Peel: Comments on guilty plea
In response to the guilty plea by three employees of St. Vincent Health System, reported here earlier today, Dr. Deborah Peel of PatientPrivacyRights.org issued the following statement: Facebook users can keep people from seeing their walls, but patients can’t keep anyone from seeing their electronic medical records. What’s interesting is how severe the penalties could…
Three plead guilty to accessing slain anchor's medical records
A physician and two former employees of the St. Vincent Health System pleaded guilty today to misdemeanor federal charges for accessing the medical records of slain television anchor Anne Pressly, the U.S. attorney’s office and FBI announced. Dr. Jay Holland and Candida Griffin, both of Little Rock, and Sarah Elizabeth Miller of England, appeared separately…
Free Webinar: Detecting Record Snooping & Automating Compliance
As reported by AIS Health.com and Report on Patient Privacy, under ARRA HITECH medical record snooping is now considered a privacy breach. The HITECH Act’s definition of a ‘breach’ now applies to when a person snoops into patient records: “The term ‘breach’ means the unauthorized acquisition, access, use, or disclosure of protected health information which…
Seeking Bypass: What Will Ultimately End Confidence in the Necessity of Parental Involvement Laws?
On July 14, 2009, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling in Zbaraz v. Madigan, lifting the injunction of the 1995 Illinois Parental Notice of Abortion Act. Public discourse about parental involvement laws for minors seeking abortions has been quiet in recent years. Many believe that such statutes are common place and the…