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.
W&L Law Offers DC-based Cyber Law and Privacy Seminar with Future of Privacy Forum
The course, titled “Cyber Policy and Privacy Law,” will be co-taught by Professor Margaret Hu and Jules Polonetsky, CEO at FPF. The course will examine how the expanding role of the internet, big data, e-commerce, social media, and wearable technology has strained the preexisting regulatory and constitutional frameworks that have guided privacy protections under the law.
CEA releases guiding privacy & security principles for wearable technologies
Yesterday, October 26th, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) announced voluntary guidelines for organizations that manage personal and health-related data, particularly as generated by consumer wearable technologies. This step illustrates CEA’s attempt to promote consumer trust in technology companies producing and supporting health trackers and other wearable technologies.
Comments to the FTC on Consumer Generated Health Data
Today, the Future of Privacy Forum submitted comments to the FTC on the privacy issues surrounding consumer generated health data. Noting that innovative products and services that allow consumers to generate and manage their own health information are increasingly becoming part of how consumers manage their broader health care, FPF discusses the need for a […]