Years ago, I commented that I could understand – and even appreciate – the use of GPS devices in helping families of Alzheimer’s patients keep their family member safe. It was one of the only exceptions I could think of to my opposition to using tracking devices on people, even though it raises important issues…
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Participants in Personal Genome Project Identified by Privacy Experts
From the MIT Technology Review: One of the biggest questions in biology is the nature versus nurture debate, the relative roles that genetic and environmental factors play in determining human traits. In 2006, George Church at Harvard University and a few others started the Personal Genome Project (PGP) to help answer this question. The goal…
UK: NHS patients can stop their data being shared, says Jeremy Hunt
NHS patients must be able to object to their personal data being shared, despite the major benefits that can be had from making it more accessible, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has said. His comments came in response to Dame Fiona Caldicott’s information governance review, which found that health and social care organisations had become excessively…
Iris Scans Seen Shrinking $7 Billion Medical Data Breach: Health
Kristen Hallam reports: Iris scanners aren’t just for airport border-control agents and spy movies anymore. Clinics and hospitals around the world are acquiring technology that identifies people based on physical traits to improve patient safety and stamp out fraud. HCA Holdings Inc. (HCA) hospitals in London, as well as health-care providers across the U.S., are…
UK: MedConfidential.org launch
Earlier this week, Ross Anderson blogged: I’m at the launch in London of the new campaign for medical privacy, MedConfidential.org. Sam Smith and I will be liveblogging the day’s events in comments below. For background, see here, here, here and here. Most of today’s audience are from groups for whom medical privacy is particularly important, such as charities dealing with rape…
Sensitive medical records found in Londonderry garden
Meanwhile, back in the U.K., BBC reports confidential patient records wer An investigation has been launched into how confidential medical records were found in a garden in Londonderry. The Western Health Trust has confirmed that the documents contained “sensitive personal information” and said it had reported the breach to the Information Commissioner’s office. The trust…