Category: Uncategorized

Mike Riggs writes: An anti-drug taskforce in Seminole County has illegally confiscated the records of more than 5,000 patients, according to theOrlando Sentinel. As part of their investigation into Dr. Vincent Mamone and 29 of his patients, agents with Sanford’s City-County Investigative Bureau received a warrant to seize “business and financial records, prescription records, charts for 29 patients,…

A Swedish credit card payment processor was sentenced today to 48 months in prison for his role in an international cybercrime ring that netted $71 million by infecting victims’ computers with “scareware” and selling rogue antivirus software that was supposed to secure victims’ computers but was, in fact, useless. Mikael Patrick Sallnert, 37, a citizen of…

Kelly Fiveash reports: Prime Minister David Cameron is to announce plans for the NHS to create a massive database of patients’ DNA, which experts have advised could lead to massive health benefits and advances in medical technology. However the creation of such a database has obvious and far reaching privacy implications. In an attempt to…

The Australian radio station hoax that managed to obtain and publish medical details of Kate Middleton has fueled a lot of public commentary.  At so many points, the breach – and what appears to be the suicide of the nurse who put the call through – might have been avoided.  I feel sorry for everyone…

How do you report that a laptop computer was stolen from an ambulance and not even raise the question as to whether patient data were on the laptop?  Beats me.

Here’s another recent and interesting privacy case in West Virginia discussed by Bordas & Bordas, who have just been added to my bookmarks: In September, they wrote: Insurance companies routinely gather medical records in the course of taking applications and processing claims. What do you think they do with this private healthcare information? The answer…