
¡SNAP!
Hey guys, remember last week when Google bought Fitbit, and everyone (well, me) had a cow that Google would have access to your Fitbit dashboard and know your exercise schedule, heart beat, weight? Such simpler, happier times…
Google has signed a deal with Ascension, the second-largest hospital system in the US (Ascension operates in 150 hospitals in 21 states), and as the WSJ reports, has secretly collected the personal health information of millions of Americans!
“Google began Project Nightingale in secret last year with St. Louis-based Ascension, a Catholic chain of 2,600 hospitals, doctors’ offices and other facilities, with the data sharing accelerating since summer, according to internal documents.
“Project Nightingale” hoovers-up (is too a vurb!) your health data — including lab results, doctor diagnoses, and hospitalization records, along with identifiers like, oh, you know, YOUR NAME and BIRTHDAY — to design new software to suggest changes in individual patient care.
Neither patients nor doctors have been notified of the collection, but don’t worry: at least 150 Google Masters of the Universe employees have access to much of the data, and they are definitely not giggling at your vital signs, and they will protect your sensitive data with all of the usual care that Silicon Valley shows us mere mortals.
Amazon, Uber, and Apple are all pitching themselves as players in this Brave, New World. Yes, that Uber.
Anyway, the next time you look something up online to settle a wager with a pal, imagine the ads you’ll see about that embarrassing thing you once asked your doctor about. You should totally get that looked at, by the way.
If this means Uber sends a driver in time for my next appointment, it might not be half bad.
w3ski
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Your appointment with DOOM!
Rgds,
TG
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Uber will also know just how vital this appointment is as far as life and death are concerned and will be able to raise their rate accordingly.
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China has some big competition:
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Also too. There’s a hack for that.
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Note, Fines and penalties are assessed on a per disclosure basis: leak 1000 records, pay 1000 fines.
However, when you go to the doctors office you’re supposed to be given a HIPAA discolsure form to sign. You can specify that your information NOT be shared with ‘business partners’ and with your insurance company only for the purposes of payments.
They like to bury you in a blizzard of 4th generation xerox legalese, but there are usually three or four places to sign or initial on a proper HIPAA release form, and commercial utilization of your records are supposed to be a separate section.
Also, of all those players, I trust Apple more, because a) they’ve worked hard on privacy in general, and b) they want to sell you widgets; Uber and Google want to sell you.
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“Knock-knock.”
“Who’s there?”
“HIPPA”
“HIPPA who?”
“I’m sorry, but Federal regulations will not allow me to give you that information.”
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OW! Coffee through the nose hurts!
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I guess my health insurance rates will go up because of my exercise and diet habits. . . cross indexed with google maps, streetview, GPS tracking for the distances I ‘run’, electronic purchases at the liquor store, the quickee mart and the ‘almost like a pizza’ joint down the street. Anything for actuarial accuracy.
F. I just gave them an idea, didn’t I.
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Oh no, they’ve been doing that for a while now.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/with-fitness-trackers-in-the-workplace-bosses-can-monitor-your-every-step–and-possibly-more/2019/02/15/75ee0848-2a45-11e9-b011-d8500644dc98_story.html
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