5 ms·

The effort we spend protecting medical records is out of all proportion to the damage done by any leaks. I really do not understand the reasoning. And this is e

The effort we spend protecting medical records is out of all proportion to the damage done by any leaks. I really do not understand the reasoning. And this is effort that would otherwise be used to generate other economic benefits, like food, housing, medical treatments, etc. Another problem is that these laws (HIPAA, etc) actually CONTRIBUTE TO the leaks, because they provide a huge blackmail incentive to hackers. The penalties are so large that hackers know they can extort giant payments from companies. Also, it's no small loss that it's so difficult to use this data for legitimate research purposes now, depriving us of all the medical gains we otherwise would have. Certainly, I would not want my records in the newspaper - but really what's the worst outcome? Everybody finds out just how much ED medication I take? I suspect a lot of this legislation is (as usual) motivated the the businesses that stand to gain from it. It creates a large moat around existing large businesses that can afford to cooperate. And funnels a lot of money to the consultancies and other companies that work to comply with these policies.

nmca 3y ago
Some folks would be materially harmed by medical record release; e.g. women who have had abortions in states where it is illegal, gays in very conservative areas, passing trans people, the functional severely depressed, passing folks with autism etc
JohnFen 3y ago
> The effort we spend protecting medical records is out of all proportion to the damage done by any leaks. I disagree entirely. > really what's the worst outcome? Well, let's look at what's happened in the past. You could be denied employment, denied housing, denied insurance coverage, even denied essential medical treatment, for starters.
tmcb 3y ago
The worst outcome is that individuals may have sensitive information in their medical history that could be poorly received by their social circles if it becomes public. In extreme cases, this could even lead to threats on their life. Consider this: the same argument could be applied to our endeavor to safeguard the secrecy of voting. What is the worst outcome if everyone discovers who you voted for? Such conclusions are inherently biased because we are unable to accurately evaluate the importance of these very existing protective measures in a civilized society.
- denton-scratch 3y ago
  > The worst outcome is that individuals may have sensitive information in their medical history that could be poorly received by their social circles if it becomes public. That's far from the worst outcome. You could lose your job, be sent to prison, be denied insurance.
  - tmcb 3y ago
    Yes. It was poor wording on my part trying to encompass all these situations under a generic description. But these are excellent examples of what I was trying to convey. Thanks.
EatingWithForks 3y ago
> Certainly, I would not want my records in the newspaper - but really what's the worst outcome? Everybody finds out just how much ED medication I take? No. The worst outcome is the police arresting a random civilian because their medical record showed they were actually a fully transitioned person living as their identified gender (and thus the only way they would know is through trawling through medical records) and are therefore in violation of, say, a bathroom law. Or a law banning "crossdressing" or other shit. It's teenagers and young women being sent to prison because there's a medical record where they were treated for excessive bleeding which lost a pregnancy, and are put in jail until their trial for abortion is up because they're too poor for bail. It's buying up the medical data of jewish people to "prove" they're really harvesting the blood of Christian children.
inkcapmushroom 3y ago
>but really what's the worst outcome? American history includes a period in the not-too-distant past where we put all people of a specific ethnicity in internment camps. So I'm gonna go with using genetic data towards those purposes probably. Maybe I could come up with even worse.
denton-scratch 3y ago
> but really what's the worst outcome? Everybody finds out just how much ED medication I take? Your employer finds out that you are alcoholic?

nmca 3y ago

Some folks would be materially harmed by medical record release; e.g. women who have had abortions in states where it is illegal, gays in very conservative areas, passing trans people, the functional severely depressed, passing folks with autism etc

JohnFen 3y ago

> The effort we spend protecting medical records is out of all proportion to the damage done by any leaks. I disagree entirely. > really what's the worst outcome? Well, let's look at what's happened in the past. You could be denied employment, denied housing, denied insurance coverage, even denied essential medical treatment, for starters.

tmcb 3y ago

The worst outcome is that individuals may have sensitive information in their medical history that could be poorly received by their social circles if it becomes public. In extreme cases, this could even lead to threats on their life. Consider this: the same argument could be applied to our endeavor to safeguard the secrecy of voting. What is the worst outcome if everyone discovers who you voted for? Such conclusions are inherently biased because we are unable to accurately evaluate the importance of these very existing protective measures in a civilized society.

denton-scratch 3y ago
> The worst outcome is that individuals may have sensitive information in their medical history that could be poorly received by their social circles if it becomes public. That's far from the worst outcome. You could lose your job, be sent to prison, be denied insurance.
- tmcb 3y ago
  Yes. It was poor wording on my part trying to encompass all these situations under a generic description. But these are excellent examples of what I was trying to convey. Thanks.

EatingWithForks 3y ago

> Certainly, I would not want my records in the newspaper - but really what's the worst outcome? Everybody finds out just how much ED medication I take? No. The worst outcome is the police arresting a random civilian because their medical record showed they were actually a fully transitioned person living as their identified gender (and thus the only way they would know is through trawling through medical records) and are therefore in violation of, say, a bathroom law. Or a law banning "crossdressing" or other shit. It's teenagers and young women being sent to prison because there's a medical record where they were treated for excessive bleeding which lost a pregnancy, and are put in jail until their trial for abortion is up because they're too poor for bail. It's buying up the medical data of jewish people to "prove" they're really harvesting the blood of Christian children.

inkcapmushroom 3y ago

>but really what's the worst outcome? American history includes a period in the not-too-distant past where we put all people of a specific ethnicity in internment camps. So I'm gonna go with using genetic data towards those purposes probably. Maybe I could come up with even worse.

denton-scratch 3y ago

> but really what's the worst outcome? Everybody finds out just how much ED medication I take? Your employer finds out that you are alcoholic?