Gaia Bernstein writes: Egg and sperm donations are an integral part of the infertility industry. The donors are usually young men and women who donate relying on the promise of anonymity. This is the norm in the United States. But, internationally things are changing. A growing number of countries have prohibited egg and sperm donor anonymity….
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Florida's War on Pill Mills Is Also a War on Patient Privacy
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,…
Payment Processor For Scareware Cybercrime Ring Sentenced To 48 Months In Prison
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…
'UK DNA database by stealth' proposed in £100m NHS project
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…
Preventing a breach – and a tragedy – by a simple technique
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…
Laptop computer stolen from ambulance in Flint
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.