A Researcher Tried To Buy Mental Health Data. It Was Surprisingly Easy. (nbcnews.com) 30
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. From a report: The research, conducted over the span of 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.
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.
Makes sense (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: Makes sense (Score:2)
Re: Makes sense (Score:2)
The moral of that story is... (Score:5, Insightful)
If you are having symptoms, do not seek help, it will be used against you.
This is why HIPAA exists, it is larger than mental health. Would people get transmissible diseases if they knew the diagnosis of them could make lose their jobs? Medical privacy is a part of effective medicine.
Re: (Score:3)
meant "Would people get transmissible diseases treated". Slashdot needs an edit button.
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Re: The moral of that story is... (Score:2)
Re: The moral of that story is... (Score:2)
I imagine they are past the point of being 'gray' legal. They're scum. Hoping to pay a small fine, while making billions.
Lampposts + rope. For all of them.
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If you are having symptoms, do not seek help, it will be used against you.
That's exactly correct. If you ask for help with mental health in the USA, it's proof that you need help with your mental health, because you're fucking crazy.
California and New York are both planning to subject the homeless to involuntary "medical care", and every week several thousand more layoffs are announced. We should all suffer from anxiety at this point, but some are suffering from cognitive dissonance instead.
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Simple solution (Score:2)
Re: Simple solution (Score:2)
If they call it from their cellphone, their antenna is already blasting all the info you need.
Re: Simple solution (Score:5, Funny)
Just ask China, their balloons have been recording all the cellular data :D
Re:Simple solution (Score:5, Insightful)
HIPAA isn't what people think it is. It only applies to certain entities, generally healthcare providers, and not even all of those in all circumstances.
It would be interesting to see where they are mining this information. I'm sure it's multiple sources. Some of it probably comes from the Goog and the socials, but I'm sure a lot of it is coming from the healthcare industry itself. If not hospitals directly, then some vendors that they use.
Strong data privacy laws are the only way to fix this. HIPAA isn't it.
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I suspect there are two main sources: (a) insurance companies, and (b) pharmacy companies. Insurance companies know the ICD (diagnosis) codes for you, while pharmacies obviously know what drugs you use.
In addition, many providers use 3rd party services to send you texts or email reminders. I wonder what it means when a psychiatrist is sending you appointment reminders.
The problem (Score:3)
The thing that its the most disturbing to me is the medical websites that do this. But I also don't want people to know every faucet of my life. Web data aggregators know everything about you. Any life event, death, birth, marriage or divorce, any health issue. And all because people are to stupid to know how the web works and don't care if their information is given away, or don't care enough to think more than: "That's weird why am I getting ads for X, how did they know?".
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who owns my data? (Score:2)
it does have my name on it, I think it belongs to me. I know, crazy right?
Re: who owns my data? (Score:2)
Data about you isn't your data.
Easy fix (Score:1)
Re: Easy fix (Score:1)
It's freely available in various blockchains (Score:2)
because some dumb startups thought it would be a good idea to store medical data in public blockchains.
When you need a place to live (Score:2)
Expect the housing baron to rubber stamp [LOON] on the application because you suffered a documented severe 'bout of depression,
Nothing good can come out of any of this.
Cardiomyopathy (Score:1)