Not everyone agrees that there’s too much data-mining of health information. Alex Herm reports: Fear of data-mining of healthcare could be costing as many as 100,000 lives a year, according to Google’s Larry Page. Speaking out in response to fears over his company’s vast haul of personal information, Page made the case that not only…
Hospitals Soon See Donuts-to-Cigarette Charges for Health
So no sooner do I post Dr. Deborah Peel’s talk about commercial entities data-mining and selling our information, then Joe Cadillic sends me a link to an article by Shannon Pettypiece and Jordan Robertson of Bloomberg: You may soon get a call from your doctor if you’ve let your gym membership lapse, made a habit of…
University of California, Washington Center notifies alumni of vendor breach
The University of California, Washington Center (UCDC) recently notified alumni of a breach involving their course pre-enrollment system. As a result of the June 7 attack on UCDC’s cloud-based provider, GoSignMeUp.com, alumni’s usernames, postal and email addresses, passwords, gender, date of birth, and courses taken were accessed. The breach was discovered on June 9. The…
Designing Technology to Restore Privacy
Dr. Deborah Peel, the founder and Chair of Patient Privacy Rights, recently gave a TED talk, “Designing Technology to Restore Privacy.” You can watch it here: Her talk may feel somewhat overwhelming or even depressing, as the sale and non-consensual use of our health information is rampant – and legal. So what can we do?…
Canada: Employer’s Potential Liability In Class Action For Employee’s Breach of Privacy
Ryley Mennie of McCarthy Tétrault LLP writes: A recent decision of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice highlights the increasing focus on (and potential liability arising from) customers’ and clients’ privacy rights and the importance for employers to properly monitor the activities of their employees. Additionally, while the decision comes from Ontario, which, unlike British Columbia, has…
Personal files from late Orlando attorney’s office thrown in dumpster
Shell Muniz reports: An Orlando woman is angry after finding out her private information was tossed into a dumpster without being shredded — and hers wasn’t the only information that got treated that way. The files appear to belong to clients of Frank Bartolomeo at The Baldwin Park Law Firm. The attorney passed away last…