Healthcare technologies are rapidly evolving, producing new data types and innovative data uses. Data and technology can bring significant enhancements to the healthcare system, deepen patients’ and consumers’ engagement and understanding about their health, and be used as part of initiatives meant to improve health outcomes. It is critical to analyze how sensitive health and wellness data affect individual privacy and understand what it means for doctors, researchers, and companies to responsibly use such data. The FPF health team continues to build on its prior work on Consumer Wearables and Wellness Apps and Devices and Privacy Best Practices for Consumer Genetic Testing Services by exploring and addressing issues at the forefront and intersection of health, data, and privacy. Of main focus are the privacy challenges related to the collection, use, and sharing of both medical data and data that falls outside of the scope of HIPAA and FDA regulations. FPF brings together stakeholders to analyze how new technologies and data practices in the health ecosystem can impact individual privacy and promote the more effective and ethical use of data.
Special Guest Post by Robert Ellis Smith
We loved this article by Robert Ellis Smith, noted privacy expert and publisher, Privacy Journal, and republish it here with his permission. Privacy Journal offers our readers a beginning rate of $65 for the next year, a 50 percent discount. The newsletter is available in hard copy by U.S. mail or pdf by email. Please place […]
Ubiquitous Biometrics
Guest Post from privacy expert Kathy Harman-Stokes Speakers at the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) 2010 Biometrics Conference emphasized the value of “ubiquitous biometrics.” For biometrics to become ubiquitous, one speaker said biometrics should be widely used for facilities access, by employers for time and attendance recording of employees, and customer identification for various transactions, […]
Privacy's Zietgeist Moment
This second guest post from FPF Advisory Board member Professor Danielle Citron is cross-posted with Concurringopinions.com, one of the top legal blogs. Check out Concurringopinions.com for regular legal and policy from top privacy scholars, including among others FPF Advisory Board members Daniel Solove, Frank Pasquale and Danielle Citron. Privacy’s Zietgeist Moment By Danielle Citron Privacy […]
Behavioral Economics
Michael Sanserino’s column on behavioral economics in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal is a timely reminder about the benefits and the risks of new kinds of personal data uses. Take the Sacramento Municipal Utility District which since April 2008, according to Sanserino, has sent monthly notices to 35,000 customers showing how their usage compares with their […]
California Healthcare Institute Meeting
Chris will deliver a luncheon address to the California Healthcare Institute on “Behavioral Adversiting, Disclosure, and the Life Sciences Sector” on September 22, 2009 from noon to 1:30pm in Newport, California.
De-identified data
Some thoughtful points today on de-identified health data from the team at CDT . See CDT | Policy Post 15.11, June 26, 2009.
An interesting ITIF Event
The Cost of Privacy: A Debate on the Impact of Privacy Laws on Health IT Adoption As the Obama Administration moves forward with plans to modernize health care by encouraging the use of electronic medical records (EMR), some parties continue to raise concerns about privacy. Strong privacy laws may help protect confidential patient information and […]
Volume of the Obama Administration on Privacy
Our friend Saul Hansell at the New York Times has a piece today entitled “The Obama Administration’s Silence on Privacy, ” which references a speech given yesterday at the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy Conference. The speech was made by Susan Crawford, a science and technology advisor to President Obama. While we are often in synch […]
Harvard Engineering
Looks like a fabulous talk today at Harvard to be presented by our Advisory Board member Professor Annie Anton. Harvard CRCS » 2009 » March. Hope someone will be live blogging/twittering! CRCS Privacy and Security Lunch Seminar Date: Wednesday, May 6, 2009 Time: 12:00pm-1:30 pm Place: Maxwell Dworkin 119 Speaker: Annie Anton Title: Designing Software […]
The Future of Privacy Forum Consumer Privacy Agenda for the New Administration
1. Appoint a Chief Privacy Officer to Promote Fair Information Practices in the Public and Private Sectors. We embrace the idea of government catching up to industry by creating the central role of a Chief Technology Officer, as has been announced. But we also point out the need — recognized by hundreds of privacy-sensitive companies […]