Nicole Lewis reports: As the Internet in general and social networking in particular are used as a point of reference for gathering and sharing health information, a study that examined 10 diabetes-focused social networking sites has found that the quality of clinical information, as well as privacy policies, significantly varied across these sites. Read more…
UK: Treasury does well out of local data breaches
Taxpayers’ money is being used to pay hundreds of thousands of pounds of fines imposed on councils for data protection breaches. In the past two months, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has fined councils more than £350,000 for falling foul of laws. Defending the decisions the ICO said the purpose of monetary penalties is to…
Health record privacy violation haunts VA worker, she says
Brian Bowling reports: The Pittsburgh Veterans Affairs Healthcare System is trying to use a technical violation of its leave policy to punish an employee who reported a violation of the federal health record privacy law, a union official said. “That’s about it in a nutshell,” said Keith Watson, president of American Federation of Government Employees…
Ie: Clergy no longer given hospital admission lists
Eoghan MacConnell reports: Hospital admission lists are no longer being made available to members of the clergy seeking to check if their parishioners are in hospital. The long-standing practice of allowing priests to check admissions has been stopped by recent data protection legislation. “Generally the priests regret that the list isn’t available for practical reasons,”…
It: Govt's proposal put female patients' privacy at risk
From AGI: The PD warned that, with an amendment to the Milleproroghe decree, the government is putting women’s privacy at risk. “With an amendment to the Milleproroghe decree, the government is launching an attack on women’s privacy, effectively putting it at risk. An article proposed by the government and voted yesterday by the Senate would…
Former L.A. County social worker pleads guilty in identity theft
This is a follow-up to a case previously reported on this blog but adds more details about the number of victims and crime. A former employee with the Los Angeles County Department of Social Services pleaded guilty this past week to federal charges and admitted that he filed federal tax returns in the names of…