The Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee on Monday approved an amendment to the Protection of Privacy Law meant to ease the subsidization of medication for Holocaust survivors. The amendment enables the survivors’ names to be transferred to HMOs without compromising their privacy. Read more on Ynetnews.com.
Professor emails private student records by accident
Mike LaCount reports: On April 8, students in the UW-Milwaukee Geography department received an e-mail containing personal information of former UWM students, but the message was removed before most of the recipients opened it. Judith Kenny, associate professor and undergraduate program chair for the department of geography, sent an e-mail to 97 students in the…
Security fears as HSBC forgets to BCC
Ben Flanagan reports: Some of HSBC Middle East’s wealthiest customers have complained that their privacy has been compromised after the bank sent a mass mailout to its ‘Premier’ customers – whom are required to maintain a minimum balance or investment of AED350,000 ($95,300) – with customers’ email addresses visible in the ‘To’ field. The customer…
Data Redaction: You’re Doing it Wrong
John Bambenek writes: PDF files are a common way to distribute documents on the Internet and even are used for distributing documents with redacted (removed) content. However, when you distribute redacted documents make sure that the data you don’t want out there isn’t, in fact, still in the file. Case in point, take the upcoming…
The Havasupai Indians, Genetic Research and the Problem of Informed Consent
Over on Concurring Opinions, Gaia Bernstein discusses the Havasupai case discussed here previously in several posts, and makes the following statement: No doubt, the Havasupai Indians informed consent argument resulted in their victorious settlement. But, the harder question is whether informed consent principle can be feasibly applied in the area of genetics. Genetic information is…
Survey: Delayed Compliance with New Regulations Has Increased Data Breaches and Medical Identity Theft in U.S. Hospitals
Although some will tend to minimize survey results when the surveyor has a self-serving interest, the results of the recent Identity Force survey of over 200 hospital administrators provides unsurprising, yet troubling, data. From their press release about the survey: PROBLEMS ARE WORSENING DESPITE MAJOR REGULATORY EFFORTS 41.5% of hospitals have TEN OR MORE data…