O’Ryan Johnson reports: Police, fire and EMS unions are accusing the Boston Public Health Commission of going behind the backs of bombing victims to collect private medical ?information about those who sought “primary care and other outpatient” help days and weeks after the bombings. The commission has sent letters to 13 area hospitals and 25…
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Alberta Privacy Commissioner says Child First Act threatens privacy
Karen Kleiss reports: Alberta’s proposed Children First Act will erode privacy rights and undermine Albertans’ control over their own health and personal information, privacy commissioner Jill Clayton says. Alberta’s Information and Privacy Commissioner criticized the sweeping new law Wednesday, saying the government hasn’t done enough to make sure those subject to the act — mainly…
IL: Police investigating computer theft at Dept of Family services
This could be bad. WGN TV reports: Chicago police are investigating a “significant theft” of computer equipment from the Dept of Family and Support Services. Someone stole about $41,000 worth of computer equipment from a city office building on the West Side in a burglary, police said. Police could not comment on what information may…
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his right to privacy
Shirie Leng, M.D., writes: I am affiliated with the institution where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is currently hospitalized. I am friends with people who have treated him. I’m trying to stay away from those people; I would be unable to help asking them about him. They might be unable to help talking about him. There has been…
Reporting Fail: The Reidentification of Personal Genome Project Participants
The issue of how easy – or difficult – it might be to re-identify “de-identified” data is crucial to discussions of using PHI in research. Jane Yakowitz writes: Last week, a Forbes article by Adam Tanner announced that a research team led by Latanya Sweeney had re-identified “more than 40% of a sample of anonymous participants” in…
Washington hospital hit by $1.03 million cyberheist
Regular readers may recall the frustration I reported when calls to Uniontown Hospital to alert them to a security breach went unanswered. I’m not the only one who can’t get a response when a response might be in the entity’s best interests. Consider this report by security blogger Brian Krebs: Organized hackers in Ukraine and…