Consumer Privacy Rights
No End in Sight for Cellphone Robocalls
Every cellphone owner is all too familiar with robocalls. The pesky phone calls just don’t seem to stop—from unknown area codes, from local area codes, from people posing as IRS agents, Social Security agents, or other government entities. And, if some corporations have their way, robocalling might get even worse. The Washington Post recently reported…
Read MoreHospital Faxes Other People’s Medical Records to Woman’s Home
A local Ohio hospital has been faxing other people’s personal medical records to Elizabeth Spilker’s home for months, in an apparent violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The information in the faxes contained patient names, ages, weights, medications, and medical histories. In a report from ABC 6, Spilker said, “We have…
Read MoreAmerican Express and Orbitz the Latest Companies to Expose Consumer Data
Word spread on March 21, 2018 of another data breach. This time the information came from American Express. Apparently, those who use American Express Travel may have had their data stolen due to a data breach at Orbitz. According to an email sent to American Express members, transactions made using the Orbitz platform between January 1,…
Read MoreFacebook and Cambridge Analytica: Just Another Data Breach
There has been much in the news lately about Cambridge Analytica utilizing data from Facebook without consumer authorization. Despite the political upheaval around this, and the consequences it may or may not have had on the election in 2016, this is nothing more than a simple data breach case. Data breach occurs when users provide…
Read MoreHHS Skirts HIPAA Rules on Sharing Substance Abuse Patient Information
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released a final rule which updates patient privacy regulations (42 CFR Part 2). This provision allows substance abuse patients to provide a general disclosure for substance abuse information. The current disclosure limits the patient’s authorization to a specific health care provider. An article in Modern…
Read MoreNew York Hospital Agrees to a $2.2 Million Penalty for Filming Patients without Authorization
Imagine how traumatizing it might be to watching a TV show filmed in an emergency room, only to realize that the footage you are watching is of your husband’s death from the year before? This actually happened to Anita Chanko in 2012. The hospital that allowed the film crew from the ABC network program “NY…
Read MoreCan the Data Collected by Your Health Apps be Sold to the Highest Bidder?
Most users mistakenly assume that the data that health apps collect is private unless they decide to share it. They may blithely assume that HIPPA laws protect the privacy of their health records. According to health policy researchers in a study published in the March edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association, that…
Read MoreConsumer Privacy, Biometrics and Facial Recognition Technology
[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”3_5″ last=”no” spacing=”yes” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding=”” class=”” id=””][fusion_text]You attended your niece’s birthday party and your sister posts all of the pictures on Facebook. She has meticulously tagged each photo with the name of each person in the picture. Now, through the use of facial recognition software,…
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