Verena Dobnick of the Associated Press reports: A man who worked in the admissions department at a prestigious Manhattan hospital has been charged with stealing and selling information on nearly 50,000 patients. Dwight McPherson, 38, a former worker at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, was arrested Friday night, shortly after the hospital announced the…
Groups seek to shield minors' Web data
Joseph Menn and Alana Semuels write in the Los Angeles Times: A coalition of medical groups and child advocates called Friday for guidelines that would prevent Internet companies from tracking the behavior of minors online, contending that many adolescents are divulging more than they realize and aren’t digesting complex privacy policies. The American Academy of…
UniCare discovers more members affected by web exposure breach than previously identified
On April 2, Sean Doolan of Hinman Straub, lawyers for UniCare, notified the New Hampshire Department of Justice that: Approximately one year ago, it was discovered that a computer server that contained protected health information (PHI) was not properly secured by a third party vendor for a period of time, which caused the PHI…
Should Online Ads Be Allowed to Know If You Have AIDS?
Chloe Albanesius writes in PC Magazine: Targeting health conditions like cancer and sexually transmitted diseases would be off-limits to online marketers under new rules proposed by a group of Internet advertisers. Interest groups, however, were skeptical that the rules will go far enough, or that the government will take any meaningful steps to protect consumers…
Safe stolen from St. Joseph Hospital facility
The Times-Standard reports: Officials at St. Joseph Health System – Humboldt County reported Friday that a safe was stolen from one of the system’s facilities on Wednesday night. The safe contained personal checks and police are conducting a thorough investigation, a press release stated. Full story – Times-Standard
Doctors got off lighter in UCLA snooping case
Charles Ornstein of the Los Angeles Times reports: When penalties were handed out for snooping in UCLA’s medical records, it paid to have an M.D. after your name. As a group, doctors at UCLA hospitals who wrongly peeked at the records of pop star Britney Spears got off lighter than other staffers, according to reports…