An error involving the Atlanta VA Medical Center resulted in 249 veterans getting the wrong cancer test results. One veteran told Channel 2 news in Atlanta he first received test results that were positive for cancer. Then he got test results that were negative (and was relieved). But then, after cancelling a follow-up visit he had scheduled after getting…
Category: Uncategorized
U.S. Mines Personal Health Data to Find the Vulnerable in Emergencies
As soon as I saw the headline in the New York Times, I figured someone was going to raise privacy concerns. I wasn’t wrong. Sheri Fink reports: The phone calls were part Big Brother, part benevolent parent. When a rare ice storm threatened New Orleans in January, some residents heard from a city official who had gained…
Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine students notified of breach by benefits administrator Hubbard-Bert
Hubbard-Bert is the benfits administrator for students at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine. On April 24, they learned that spreadsheets containing personal information of some LECOM students was inadvertently exposed on the Internet due to a misconfiguration of a test server on April 14 (yes, a test server should not have live data for exactly this reason)….
Personal Genome Project UK email disaster: If you can’t guarantee privacy, at least try to ensure trust
Paula Boddington writes: It’s not often that you can write on a topic in ethics whilst rolling around laughing, so I shall take this rare opportunity to make a few comments on the ludicrous breach of privacy that occurred last night when the Personal Genome Project messed up something as simple as an email list. […] So,…
Former Palm Beach County Health Department employee sentenced in data theft for tax refund fraud scheme
AP has an update on an insider breach at the Palm Beach County Department Health, reported previously on this blog: A federal judge imposed the sentence last week on 31-year-old Salita St. Simon of Belle Glade. St. Simon was also ordered to pay more than $19,000 in restitution and serve two years’ probation after her…
FTC may soon turn its regulatory gaze toward data-collecting health apps
Mark Sullivan reports: The Federal Trade Commission recently said it would crack down on the sharing of information about children by mobile apps, and there are now indications that it will turn its regulatory gaze toward apps that collect health data. In late February and early March the commission conducted a small study of health and fitness apps…