Health Privacy

About health privacy, World Privacy Forum key health privacy resources

The World Privacy Forum is extremely active in health privacy, with a long and successful track record of work in this area. We have done groundbreaking work in the area of medical identity theft, as well as substantive analysis and education on critical privacy aspects of health data such as medical research, genomics, and many other issues.

Some of our most frequently accessed health privacy resources include:

* A Patient’s Guide to HIPAA

* Medical Identity Theft Page (resources, reports, more)

* Health privacy tagged materials

* HIPAA tagged materials

* Electronic Health Records tagged materials

* Common Rule and Human Subject Research Protection tagged materials

* Genetic privacy tagged materials

We have many more publications and resources. For a full list of topics and publications, see our key issues page.

See below for health privacy news and content by date.

Feb 06 2015

Medical ID Theft a Threat for Anthem Breach Victims, Key Tips

Key Consumer Tips for Anthem Breach Victims: Be alert for the key areas of attack post-breach, including Medical ID theft Victims of the Anthem data breach should be aware of three potential areas for risk after the breach: Medical identity theft Financial forms of identity theft Spear phishing and phishing Medical ID theft is a

Jan 30 2015

Video: High Tech Health highlights from CES 2015

From advanced biosensors to healthy cities in China to robots and telemedicine, this is WPF’s video capture of the key trends and technologies at the 2015 Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas. This video was premiered at Georgia Tech/Academy of Medicine on Data Privacy Day, 2015.

Jan 05 2015

Events: World Privacy Forum at Consumer Electronics Show

WPF is attending the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. We’re focusing on privacy and health and fitness technology, smart home tech/Internet of Things, and education and kid tech. Throughout the week we will be bringing you a stream of thoughts, images, and short videos via our Twitter and Instagram feeds. After the show, we will

Nov 24 2014

Video: Does my doctor share my records in an HIE?

This video is part 9 of a 14-part video series on health privacy and health information exchanges Video: Now that I know about health information exchanges, how do I know if my doctor or hospital is sharing my information? Not all health files are automatically exchanged in HIEs. To find out if your doctor or

Nov 11 2014

Some Californians receive emails from health insurer with personal details exposed: potential CalINDEX implications?

This week the New York Times reported that some California members of health insurer Anthem Blue Cross received disturbing emails with exposed subject lines related to their sensitive medical information. From the article: “But the emails’ subject lines included member-specific demographic details like age range and language. They also listed possible medical screening tests —

National IDs Around the World — Interactive map

About this Data Visualization: This interactive map displays the presence...
Report: From the Filing Cabinet to the Cloud: Updating the Privacy Act of 1974

This comprehensive report and proposed bill text is focused on the Privacy Act of 1974, an important and early Federal privacy law that applies to the government sector and some contractors. The Privacy Act was written for the 1970s information era -- an era that was characterized by the use of mainframe computers and filing cabinets. Today's digital information era looks much different than the '70s: smart phones are smarter than the old mainframes, and documents are now routinely digitized and stored and perhaps even analyzed in the cloud, among many other changes. The report focuses on why the Privacy Act needs an update that will bring it into this century, and how that could look and work. This work was written by Robert Gellman, and informed by a two-year multi-stakeholder process.
COVID-19 and HIPAA: HHS’s Troubled Approach to Waiving Privacy and Security Rules for the Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic strained the U.S. health ecosystem in numerous ways, including putting pressure on the HIPAA privacy and security rules. The Department of Health and Human Services adjusted the privacy and security rules for the pandemic through the use of statutory and administrative HIPAA waivers. While some of the adjustments are appropriate for the emergency circumstances, there are also some meaningful and potentially unwelcome privacy and security consequences. At an appropriate time, the use of HIPAA waivers as a response to health care emergencies needs a thorough review. This report sets out the facts, identifies the issues, and proposes a roadmap for change.