Comments
Hrmbee OP t1_j0ea476 wrote
Looks like HIPAA isn't well suited for situations encountered in digital ecosystems. It might be time for it to be revamped at the very least to take into account these kinds of situations that have and might continue to arise.
Muuustachio t1_j0h8mum wrote
I did a case study in college on the lack of digital privacy laws in the states. Instead of creating new laws, lawmakers just keep adding detail to hipaa. That's not the right approach imo. We need something more robust like GDPR
lurchmiri t1_j0e8qxr wrote
Things like this are one of the reasons I’ve pretty much just given up on caring about my digital privacy. No matter how hard you try they’ll end up knowing everything about you anyway because nobody cares enough to stop them.
BrokeMacMountain t1_j0g1kix wrote
I dont wish to insult you, but your attitude is part of the problem. Most people seem to feel the same way you do, and have resigned themselves to the idea there is no hope.
This situation will only improve when people start refusing to use these compnaies, and demanding better laws.
TheFilterJustLeaves t1_j0friq7 wrote
Vote with your wallet on services that don’t take it seriously. You can’t pick and choose on everything unfortunately, but building it into your personal vendor selection process is a valuable practice.
Korrado t1_j0hjvon wrote
I agree with your sentiment about fighting for your rights by not using these companies but you have ask yourself why people are using them in the first place. These issues tend to be multifaceted such as living in an area where medical care is not readily available/accessible. Maybe these people would need to drive long distances to see a Dr. Perhaps the local Drs don’t have appointments readily available resulting in appointments weeks or even months away. The issues is with loose legislation in a capitalist economy where venture capitalist see a way to make a lot of quick cash. People need better representation.
[deleted] t1_j0e9su5 wrote
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Hrmbee OP t1_j0exfy6 wrote
I wouldn't be too surprised if I were to discover that some of the big insurance companies are invested in some/many of these telehealth companies.
Mysterious-Tea1518 t1_j0f44te wrote
Absolutely, at the very least they are using them to suppress cost.
Hrmbee OP t1_j0e5t1z wrote
>A joint investigation by STAT and The Markup of 50 direct-to-consumer telehealth companies like WorkIt found that quick, online access to medications often comes with a hidden cost for patients: Virtual care websites were leaking sensitive medical information they collect to the world’s largest advertising platforms. > >On 13 of the 50 websites, we documented at least one tracker—from Meta, Google, TikTok, Bing, Snap, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Pinterest—that collected patients’ answers to medical intake questions. Trackers on 25 sites, including those run by industry leaders Hims & Hers, Ro, and Thirty Madison, told at least one big tech platform that the user had added an item like a prescription medication to their cart, or checked out with a subscription for a treatment plan. > >The trackers that STAT and The Markup were able to detect, and what information they sent, is a floor, not a ceiling. Companies choose where to install trackers on their websites and how to configure them. Different pages of a company’s website can have different trackers, and we did not test every page on each company’s site. > >All but one website examined sent URLs users visited on the site and their IP addresses—akin to a mailing address for a computer, which can be used to link information to a specific patient or household—to at least one tech company. The only telehealth platform that we didn’t observe sharing data with outside tech giants was Amazon Clinic, a platform recently launched by Amazon. > >Health privacy experts and former regulators said sharing such sensitive medical information with the world’s largest advertising platforms threatens patient privacy and trust and could run afoul of unfair business practices laws. They also emphasized that privacy regulations like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) were not built for telehealth. That leaves “ethical and moral gray areas” that allow for the legal sharing of health-related data, said Andrew Mahler, a former investigator at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights. > >“I thought I was at this point hard to shock,” said Ari Friedman, an emergency medicine physician at the University of Pennsylvania who researches digital health privacy. “And I find this particularly shocking.”
This is, to put it mildly, not good. There need to be clear standards and requirements for any organization, public or private, to safekeep health data and metadata. Meaningful sanctions need to also be in place for those who violate these standards. Given the current situation, it would not be surprising if insurance companies and the like are buying all the data they can to help build out profiles on the people they insure to determine coverage and premiums.
Relaxedpuma t1_j0e9nl9 wrote
Wow, this is really concerning. It's important for people to have control over their own personal health information and for it to be handled with the utmost privacy and security. It's unsettling to think that all of these telehealth startups are sending sensitive health information to big tech companies without proper consent. It's crucial that measures are put in place to ensure that people's health data is protected and not used for any nefarious purposes.
sanjsrik t1_j0e5r93 wrote
Well, someone has to make money.
WillBottomForBanana t1_j0hl3em wrote
Guys, I only have so many "surprised pikachu faces" to go around.
[deleted] t1_j0hzysj wrote
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thenewbigR t1_j0g714y wrote
Governance? DLP? Nah - we need to be first to market.
QuestionableAI t1_j0e6333 wrote
Gosh ... where are the laws, HIPPA issues/legal violations???? Something?