p2pnet - rss feed: Google gets its hands on patient data
p2pnet news | Freedom:- Now the fox has truly penetrated the henhouse.
"Google will test a new online medical record service with a hospital group in Cleveland, Ohio, allowing patients to control who gets to see their health information," says InfoWorld. "The two organizations hope the trial will lead to the creation of a national system for sharing electronic medical records."
A national, officially approved, system through which ace purveyor of what’s supposed to be private data of user data gets its venal hands on sensitive patient information?
The mind boggles.
"The Cleveland Clinic already operates its own electronic personal health record system, eCleveland Clinic MyChart, holding the records of 100,000 patients. It will invite between 1,500 and 10,000 of them to participate in the trial with Google," it said yesterday.
Participants in the trial will be able to exchange data about their prescriptions, conditions, and allergies between their Cleveland Clinic record and a ’secure Google profile’ in a live clinical delivery setting, the hospital group said."
Secure Google profile? Is there such a thing? And secure from whom?
"We may share aggregated non-personal information with third parties outside of Google," it says.
Not "may"—- "will".
It goes on:
When we use third parties to assist us in processing your personal information, we require that they comply with our Privacy Policy and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures.
We may also share information with third parties in limited circumstances, including when complying with legal process, preventing fraud or imminent harm, and ensuring the security of our network and services.
"Google funds its personalized Web services by displaying targeted advertising based on what it knows about its users, raising questions about whether sensitive personal information could end up in the hands of marketers," says Infoworld, adding:
"Privacy is bound to be a concern for potential users of the system for other reasons: health information is sensitive because of the effects that certain conditions can have on job prospects or insurance rates. For those reasons the storage, transmission and use of such information is tightly regulated by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in the U.S."
Also See:
InfoWorld - Google to manage health records for Cleveland Clinic, February 21, 2008
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February 21st, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Google sure does roam a lot… as if part of a government operation to control the net.
February 23rd, 2008 at 6:12 am
Aggregated non-personal data. I don’t have a problem with them sharing that to be honest. Let’s say that a hypothetical person has bowel cancer. ‘Aggregated non-personal data’ would mean Google sharing the likes of ‘X thousand people with bowel cancer are on our records - Y thousand of them were treated with drug Z’ with other companies. How exactly is that a privacy concern?