Stuff reports: An insurance company has been forced to reach a settlement and change its policies after breaching a man’s privacy by accessing his full medical history without permission. The unidentified man brought a complaint to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner after the company he applied to for trauma insurance accessed his full medical…
Swisscom Acknowledges Data Security Breach
Neue Zürcher Zeitung NZZ was in possession of four data tapes that apparently originated from Swisscom’s data centres, the editorial office has informed the company. The records concerned are apparently backup files from 2008 to 2010 containing internal Swisscom data, including e-mails. It is still not clear to Swisscom whether customer data are also stored…
Pairing patient privacy with health big data analytics
Patrick Ouellette reports: Health privacy and security are often mentioned in tandem, but Deborah Peel, Founder and Chair of Patient Privacy Rights and Adrian Gropper, Chief Technology Officer of Patient Privacy Rights, took a different view in a recent Institute for Health Technology Transformation (iHT2) webcast. The presentation, titled “Competing for Patient Trust and Data…
Model Notices of Privacy Practices for health care providers and health plans
I wish they had published these before I spent days revising my privacy practices notice and having them printed, but if you still need them, HHS has provided customizable templates for your notices here. Remember the new law goes into effect September 23.
White House Pushing Health Care Security Measure Addressing Privacy Concerns
Jesse Holland and Kelli Kennedy report: The Obama administration is planning a high-level effort to reassure Americans about the privacy and security of the information submitted under the new health care law, hoping to blunt complaints from Republican opponents that enough isn’t being done to protect consumer data. Attorney General Eric Holder, Health and Human…
FDNY EMS sued over photos that violated privacy and humiliated people
Despite my efforts to stay on top of news stories about privacy breaches, I am no longer surprised to learn that I’ve missed some big ones. Such appears to be the case involving some members of the FDNY EMS service. In March, Twitter and the media lit up after racist tweets by “Bad Lieutenant,” identified…