New amendments to the Personal Health Information Act (PHIA) will improve patient access rights and privacy standards by helping Manitobans understand how to access their personal health information and how it is shared with others, creating a stronger culture of patient care and safety in the health-care system, Health Minister Theresa Oswald announced today. “These…
Cracking Open Genetic Privacy
Margaret R. McLean, Ph.D., is director of bioethics and associate director of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University. She writes: Almost a decade after the Human Genome Project cracked the genetic code, the wall of privacy surrounding genetic information may be developing a few cracks of its own. This is not such…
Breaking news headlines from today
Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont has responded to the massive loss of data by the Educational Credit Management Corporation by vowing to hold Congressional hearings and introduce new legislation to better protect personal information. Although the Senator has repeatedly introduced a data breach notification bill in past sessions of Congress, the bill became outdated after…
Two more newly revealed breaches
There are two newly revealed breaches on the HHS/OCR web site that were not previously reported in the media: Laboratory Corporation of America/Dynacare Northwest, Inc. State: Washington Approx. # of Individuals Affected: 5,080 Date of Breach: 2/12/10 Type of Breach: Theft Location of Breached Information: Laptop Lee Memorial Health System State: Florida Approx. # of…
Detective: Hundreds could be victims of identity theft
Travis County [Texas] deputies have arrested a man who they say is responsible for hundreds of cases of identity theft. Piles of checks, drivers’ licenses, gift cards and receipts blanketed a table at the Travis County Sheriff’s Office Wednesday. “We recovered 70 fake Texas licenses and ID cards, 628 stolen and counterfeit checks,” said Detective…
Proposed law would keep inmates from data
The UPI reports: <blockquote>The U.S. Social Security Administration plans to propose legislation to ban prisoners from access to data that could be used for identity theft, officials say. Most states have laws barring inmates in training or work programs from seeing Social Security numbers and other personal data, The Kansas City (Mo.) Star reports. But…