Oommen C. Kurian writes: Public debate this week has been dominated by how WhatsApp compromises personal data and privacy, and the pros and cons of its competitors. On 5 January, there was a story on a technology portal about how details of COVID-19 test results of tens of thousands of patients were leaked on the net through…
Category: Healthcare
Loblaw’s points economy for private-health data follows Big Tech’s playbook
Vass Bednar is the executive director of McMaster University’s new master of public policy in digital society program Should personal health information be tethered to rewards and leveraged for advertising purposes? In October, Loblaw Cos. Ltd. unveiled a mobile application that refers shoppers to health services and ties loyalty points to wellness behaviours. Developed in a partnership with…
B.C. ministry warned birth alerts ‘illegal and unconstitutional’ months before banning them
Bayleigh Marelj writes: Months before British Columbia officially ended the controversial practice of birth alerts, government lawyers advised the Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD) that the practice was “illegal and unconstitutional” and posed a “litigation risk,” according to records obtained by IndigiNews. When a social worker feels an expectant parent may put their…
OCR Releases Report Summarizing HIPAA Privacy and Security Compliance Failures
Joseph J. Lazzarotti and Maya Atrakchi of JacksonLewis write: In the final days of 2020, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Health and Human Service (HHS) released a HIPAA Audits Industry Report (“the Report”), that could be quite helpful to covered entities and business associates for tackling HIPAA compliance as we enter the new…