Michael Powers writes: A brief survey of the Canadian landscape would reveal that Ontario requires breach notification under the Personal Health Information and Protection Act for custodians of personal health information; upon full proclamation, Newfoundland will require breach notification under its Personal Health Information Act; Nova Scotia’s new legislation on personal health information (to be…
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AU: Heath identifier function creep threatens data privacy says Coalition
Kareen Dearne reports: The Senate Community Affairs committee has recommended passage of the controversial Healthcare Identifiers Bill, despite the minority Coalition members calling for amendments to ensure patient privacy and prevent personal identifiers being turned into a national identity regime. Last night, the committee recommended developing a plan to introduce the scheme over the next…
At Bronx clinic, the eyes are windows to medical records
Madison Park reports: Rafael Fernandez walks into the Bronx, New York, medical clinic, with his eyes wide open. Checking Fernandez in, a clinic employee scans his eyes using a handheld camera. Within seconds, the camera reads his iris patterns, and a computer locates his medical record. Such iris identification technology is usually seen in international…
AU: Privacy dominates Senate e-health inquiry
Ben Grubb reports: Over the last two days a Senate inquiry has delved into the government’s plans to roll-out a 16-digit national healthcare identifier for the majority of Australians, with the main obstacle many parties saw to implementation still being privacy. The inquiry will hand in a report next week which will help inform debate…
Pennsylvania’s Web security officer leaves post a week after talking about PennDOT hacking incident
Jan Murphy reports: Last week, Pennsylvania’s chief information security officer Robert Maley was at an information security conference in San Francisco talking about a hacking incident involving PennDOT’s computers. This week, Maley is gone. […] Danielle Klinger, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Transportation, said the agency is not aware of any hacking or…
Patients' medical records go online without consent
Kate Devlin reports from the U.K.: Patients’ confidential medical records are being placed on a controversial NHS database without their knowledge, doctors’ leaders have warned. Those who do not wish to have their details on the £11 billion computer system are supposed to be able to opt out by informing health authorities. But doctors have…