Posted on Feb 13, 2023
A researcher tried to buy mental health data. It was surprisingly easy.
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US medical data is not as private as some would believe...
A researcher tried to buy mental health data. It was surprisingly easy.
Posted from nbcnews.com
Mental Health
Medical
Privacy
Posted 1 y ago
Responses: 5
Scratching my head a bit because HIPAA DOES apply to "heathcare clearinghouses"* and "business associates of covered entities" - both categories which sound like they should apply to the data brokers.
Should absolutely be looked at by DOJ and if not criminal and there is a loophole being exploited it needs to be fixed by Congress. This is obviously not right.
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* HIPAA defines 'Healthcare clearinghouses' as organizations that process nonstandard health information and convert data into types that conform to the standards outlined in the HIPAA administrative simplification regulations"
Should absolutely be looked at by DOJ and if not criminal and there is a loophole being exploited it needs to be fixed by Congress. This is obviously not right.
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* HIPAA defines 'Healthcare clearinghouses' as organizations that process nonstandard health information and convert data into types that conform to the standards outlined in the HIPAA administrative simplification regulations"
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PFC Edgar Mosier
Want a real spin, sir?
I was an up-to-date dues-paying member of LIUNA (Laborers International Union of North America), Local 512 (Orlando), when the VA issued me the oxygen therapy that Marion County Board Of County Commissioners used, via their Human Resources Director, to "Medically Terminate" me.
Want to know the Union's take?
"It's a HIPPA issue."
My Justice? Even the EEOC refused to exonerate the MCBCC, HR, nor any of the elected and their bureaucrats.
I was an up-to-date dues-paying member of LIUNA (Laborers International Union of North America), Local 512 (Orlando), when the VA issued me the oxygen therapy that Marion County Board Of County Commissioners used, via their Human Resources Director, to "Medically Terminate" me.
Want to know the Union's take?
"It's a HIPPA issue."
My Justice? Even the EEOC refused to exonerate the MCBCC, HR, nor any of the elected and their bureaucrats.
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LTC Eugene Chu
"Sensitive mental health data is for sale by little-known data brokers, at times for a few hundred dollars and with little effort to hide personal information such as names and addresses, according to research released Monday.
The research, conducted over two months at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy, which studies the ecosystem of companies buying and selling personal data, consisted of asking 37 data brokers for bulk data on people’s mental health. Eleven of them agreed to sell information that identified people by issues, including depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder, and often sorted them by demographic information such as age, race, credit score and location.
The researchers did not buy the data, but in many cases received free samples to prove that the broker was legitimate, a common industry practice. The study doesn’t name the data brokers.
Some of the brokers were particularly cavalier with sensitive data. One made no demands on how information it sold was used and advertised that it could offer names and addresses of people with “depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety issues, panic disorder, cancer, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and personality disorder, as well as individuals who have had strokes and data on theirs races and ethnicities,” the report found.
“[T]he industry appears to lack a set of best practices for handling individuals’ mental health data, particularly in the areas of privacy and buyer vetting,” the report found.
While prices for rented and sold mental health records varied widely, some firms offered them for cheap, as low as $275 for information on 5,000 people."...
"Sensitive mental health data is for sale by little-known data brokers, at times for a few hundred dollars and with little effort to hide personal information such as names and addresses, according to research released Monday.
The research, conducted over two months at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy, which studies the ecosystem of companies buying and selling personal data, consisted of asking 37 data brokers for bulk data on people’s mental health. Eleven of them agreed to sell information that identified people by issues, including depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder, and often sorted them by demographic information such as age, race, credit score and location.
The researchers did not buy the data, but in many cases received free samples to prove that the broker was legitimate, a common industry practice. The study doesn’t name the data brokers.
Some of the brokers were particularly cavalier with sensitive data. One made no demands on how information it sold was used and advertised that it could offer names and addresses of people with “depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety issues, panic disorder, cancer, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and personality disorder, as well as individuals who have had strokes and data on theirs races and ethnicities,” the report found.
“[T]he industry appears to lack a set of best practices for handling individuals’ mental health data, particularly in the areas of privacy and buyer vetting,” the report found.
While prices for rented and sold mental health records varied widely, some firms offered them for cheap, as low as $275 for information on 5,000 people."...
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