Two companies that collect, analyze and sell prescription information are mounting a Supreme Court challenge to New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation law making doctors’ prescription writing habits confidential. In an appeal filed Friday, IMS Health Inc., of Norwalk, Conn.; and Verispan LLC, of Yardley, Pa., are telling the high court that the law violates their First Amendment…
Author: Dissent
ACU says computer server hacked
Brian Bethel reports: An Abilene Christian University computer server was hacked near the end of February, but university officials do not at this point believe any personal information was distributed. An e-mail dated one week ago from the college’s information technology branch states that the school experienced a security breach in a database containing myACU…
Prescription Drug Records at Risk
Former presidential candidate Bob Barr writes: My home state of Georgia may soon join those states that have enacted “Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs,†thereby making individual citizen’s prescription records subject to easier state and federal government snooping. Already nearly three dozen states have such programs in place, a primary reason for which is to receive…
Firm Faulted For Giving Email Addys To Pharma
Les Luchter reports: The revelation that a company that enticed people to take a “Real Age” test sent emails based on their results on behalf of pharmaceutical companies sparked a range of reaction on Thursday. The New York Times reported that nine million people who have taken the Web-based health survey and agreed to free…
Symantec Data Leak Remains Under Investigation (updated)
Brian Prince of eWeek reports: Law enforcement is still investigating how credit card information belonging to a handful of Symantec customers from the United Kingdom fell into the hands of an identity theft ring. Though speculation has focused on an employee of e4e, a call center in India, a spokesman for Symantec said its own…
Bits ‘n Pieces
In the justice system: Regina Tolliver, formerly employed by the Citizens Bank branch in King of Prussia, was convicted on all counts alleging that she stole the information of seven customers. She had been indicted (pdf) in January 2008. More. Richard J. Berger faces five years in prison for accessing sensitive customer information for SunLife…