Police say they rarely use DNA samples taken from newborn babies to help their investigations. The Privacy Commissioner has suggested in a submission to the Health Ministry that two million DNA samples, taken from a heel-prick test of babies born since 1969, should be destroyed or transferred to a secure authority. […] Privacy Commissioner Marie…
Category: Health Data
Brazilian Police Infringe on Women's Privacy while Investigating Abortions
Last week Brazilian police continued to investigate over 1,000 women suspected of having abortions, which are illegal in Brazil. According to BBC News, 150 women have already been charged and 30 sentenced to community service in connection to a family planning clinic in Campo Grande, a southwestern city. The clinic, which closed in 2007, operated…
Microchips for AIDS patients in eastern Indonesia
The situation described below really raises so many ethical, civil liberties, and privacy issues… Niniek Karmini and Irwan Firdaus of the Associated Press report: Lawmakers in Indonesia’s remote province of Papua have thrown their support behind a controversial bill requiring some HIV/AIDS patients to be implanted with microchips — part of extreme efforts to monitor…
Microsoft, Google Joust—and Concur—On Personal Health Records
Chad Berndtson reports: They may be cutthroat competitors. But tried as their representatives did to explain the fundamental differences between two personal health record (PHR) platforms,Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) and Google also may yet have some detente—at least when it comes to the like-minded goal of managing vast quantities of personal health information to benefit end…
Study favors use of national health ID numbers for patients
The report says unique identifiers would reduce errors and protect privacy, but privacy watchdogs are not convinced. Read the story in AMNews The report on which the article is based is: “Identity Crisis: An Examination of the Costs and Benefits of a Unique Patient Identifier for the U.S. Health Care System,” RAND Health, October, 2008.
CO: Identity theft traced back to hospital bill
The Children’s Hospital and a third-party billing contractor will warn as many as 1,000 families that their credit card information may have been compromised by a former employee. Aurora-based Revenue Enterprises recently terminated an employee that handled billing for The Children’s Hospital after it was discovered she used a family’s credit card to pay for…