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What's New

 

Major reports:

Medical ID Theft

The World Privacy Forum researched and published the first major report about medical identity theft and brought this crime to the attention of the public for the first time. Our May 2006 report documents and discusses medical identity theft and what makes it unique. While the financial forms of identity theft are well-known at this point, the medical forms of ID theft are not. The medical forms if ID theft have unique harms associated with them, and under HIPAA victims have gaps in recourse for help recovering from the crime. The World Privacy Forum has also published substantial resources for victims in the form of a groundbreaking FAQ for victims, again, the first to be published on this issue.

Our medical identity theft page contains the report, FAQ for victims, consumer tips, and best practices for healthcare providers.

 

Personal Health Records

The World Privacy Forum has published a substantive legal analysis that looks at what happens when health care files and medical records are kept at businesses not subject to the Federal medical privacy rule, HIPAA. This analysis is the first the WPF is aware of on this particular issue. The report was published February 2008 and is available on our Personal Health Record page: http://www.worldprivacyforum.org/personal_health_records.html and here.

 

Online Advertising

The World Privacy Forum issued a new report on the Network Advertising Initiative November 2, 2007. The report documents and analyzes the history and operations of the 7-year old NAI self-regulatory initiative, which was designed to allow consumers to opt-out of tracking by behavioral advertisers. The report is available here, and at the FTC web site.

 

Other new content:

 

May 2008

WPF files comments on proposed changes to FERPA

We filed comments regarding the proposed regulatory changes to FERPA on May 7th. Otherwise known as The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, FERPA is a significant regulation that students and parents should know and care about. FERPA has been impacted by a number of new laws, for example, the PATRIOT Act, and the Department of Education has written new FERPA regulations that reflect these statutory changes. Some aspects of the proposed regulations are positive, and we supported those aspects. But other aspects of the new regulations need to be changed to better protect families' privacy interests. See our comments here.

 

April 2008

WPF testimony on medical identity theft at FTC workshop

Executive director Pam Dixon testified at an April 24th FTC workshop on the issues of medical identity theft, PHRs, and direct to consumer genetic testing. The workshop web page is here, and includes links to the powerpoint presentation.

 

WPF filing on behaviorally targeted online advertisements

We filed detailed comments with the FTC regarding online advertisements April 11, 2008. The comments are available on the FTC web site currently; we will be making them available here shortly.

 

WPF Filing on Patient Safety Organizations

We filed extensive comments regarding the newly proposed HHS regulations implementing the Patient Safety Act. Our analysis of the proposed rulemaking resulted in 14 substantive recommendations regarding changes that should be made to protect patient privacy. The rulemaking is open for public comments until April 14, 2008. See our comments here.

 

March 2008

 

New WPF page on genetic privacy

We have added a new genetic privacy page to our landing pages. The page outlines policy issues, links to WPF genetic privacy work, and links to external research and key organizations. The genetic privacy page is here. Our other landing pages can be found by going to our Topics page, and viewing the list of landing pages in the far left hand column.

 

New entries to the NHIN timeline

We have added new entries to our NHIN (National Health Information Network) timeline current as of March 21. There is a lot of new activity surrounding the NHIN effort. Even though most people in the U.S. are unaware of the proposed NHIN, it stands to have a big impact once it is in place. See our NHIN background info page and our NHIN Timeline.

 

Updated: PHR Page

We have updated our PHR landing page to include more background information about PHRs, or personal health records.

 

Medical Identity Theft tips page and Medical identity theft landing page

We have substantially updated our consumer tips for preventing and recovering from medical identity theft. The tips are here. See also our detailed FAQ for victims and our updated medical identity theft landing page, which has new content.

 

Updated: Resource Page

We have updated our WPF Resources page to reflect several new reports and consumer advisories.

 

February 2008

 

New Publications on PHRs: WPF Legal and Policy Analysis, and WPF Consumer Advisory

The World Privacy Forum published a detailed legal and policy analysis of PHRs and privacy prepared by Robert Gellman. WPF also published a consumer advisory on PHRs and privacy. Both documents focus on the complexities and difficulties of privacy in Personal Health Records. These materials address the vacuum of substantive privacy-focused analysis in this area.

Read the legal and policy analysis of PHRs and privacy

Read the consumer advisory about privacy and PHRs

The new PHR page contains links to all of the documents and some external resources. We will be adding new material to this page regularly.

 

SACGHS Testimony

Executive director Pam Dixon testified before SACGHS in Washington D.C. regarding genetic privacy and marketing issues. We will be posting the testimony here soon. Detailed written comments outlining the issues are available here (PDF) .

 

FACTA Comments

WPF, NCLC, and Consumer's Union filed detailed, extensive comments on the recent FACTA proposed rulemaking. This rulemaking stands to have a significant impact on consumers' interactions with furnishers of information to credit reports. The joint comments are here (PDF).

 

Upcoming Events:

 

Executive director Pam Dixon will be speaking at the following events:

 

  • FTC Workshop, April 24 2008, Washington D.C.

  • CalPSAB, April 16, Oakland.

  • CIMCE, April 9 2008, Los Angeles.

  • Summit, Cyber Safe California: Protecting Our Children, Safeguarding Our Privacy, Securing Our Future, Los Angeles, March 4-5 2008.

  • CalPSAB, Feb. 7 2008, Los Angeles.

  • CHIA audioconference, Jan. 30 2008.

 

Miscellaneous new items of note:

 

  • HIPAA Updates: Courtesy of the Health Information Privacy/Security Alert, HIPAA enforcement updates are available free of charge at the web site <http://www.melamedia.com/>.