People are being forced to decide if they should seek out healthcare or support for their conditions and accept that they'll be branded with that for the rest o

People are being forced to decide if they should seek out healthcare or support for their conditions and accept that they'll be branded with that for the rest of their lives in countless databases sold to anyone willing to pay or if they should just suffer in silence and avoid the doctors, medications, and online communities that might help them. Right now, expect that your health conditions are up for sale and being passed around like candy to anyone willing to pay for it. It's bad enough that lists of people who are addicts, prone to impulsive purchases, or easily confused/tricked are extremely valuable to scammers and advertisers, but that same data can cost you a job or housing and open you up to harassment as well. The same is true for anyone calling a crisis service, such as a suicide hotline or a rape crisis center or those visiting shelters and mental health clinics. People's phone records and GPS logs have been available for sale for a very long time. The last thing someone in crisis should need to worry about are the life long consequences of dialing one of these phone numbers or walking into a clinic. Industry will not do the right thing, and the market has failed to provide a solution to this problem, so it looks like we need laws with real teeth and sustained oversight to enforce those laws.