Michael Hardy reports: The government stores personal information on millions of Americans who have used the Healthcare.gov system, a situation which is raising privacy concerns as the recent successful attack that compromised Office of Personnel Management data makes plain the damage that hackers can do. Called the Multidimensional Insurance Data Analytics System, or MIDAS, the…
Category: Healthcare
Google Reveals Health-Tracking Wristband
Caroline Chen and Brian Womack report: Google Inc.’s life sciences group has created a health-tracking wristband that could be used in clinical trials and drug tests, giving researchers or physicians minute-by-minute data on how patients are faring. The experimental device, developed within the company’s Google X research division, can measure pulse, heart rhythm and skin…
Wearable fitness trackers tested for data leakage and poor security
Graham Cluley writes: Independent IT security testing authority AV-Test.org has put nine different fitness trackers under the microscope, in order to explore how well they are protecting users’ data. At first it may seem peculiar that the organisation, famous for its in-depth tests of anti-virus technology, has turned its attention to fitness trackers. But in…
CVS’s Target deal: Prescription for a privacy disaster
Evan Schuman has an OpEd that begins: When Target announced this week that it was selling its pharmacy business to CVS, it was good news for CVS, which will add more than 1,660 pharmacies across 47 states — plus 80 clinics — to its network of some 7,800 drugstores and almost 1,000 clinics. But lost amid…