To Track Virus, Governments Weigh Surveillance Tools that Push Privacy Limits

Blood sample with respiratory coronavirus positive

As the country scrambles to control the rapidly spreading coronavirus, government agencies are putting in place or considering a range of tracking and surveillance technologies that test the limits of personal privacy. The technologies include everything from geolocation tracking that can monitor the locations of people through their phones to facial-recognition systems that can analyze… Continue reading To Track Virus, Governments Weigh Surveillance Tools that Push Privacy Limits

Sharing Your Digital Health Data: New Rules Ease Access

Medical technology concept.

Sharing your personal health data with apps, doctors and hospitals will get easier under new federal rules, announced Monday, that are likely to sharpen a debate over patient privacy. By standardizing the way data must be shared and mandating that individuals have digital access to their own health records, the regulations are widely expected to… Continue reading Sharing Your Digital Health Data: New Rules Ease Access

Hospitals Give Tech Giants Access to Detailed Medical Records

Medicine doctor and stethoscope in hand touching icon medical network connection with modern virtual screen interface, medical technology network concept

Hospitals have granted Microsoft Corp., International Business Machines Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. the ability to access identifiable patient information under deals to crunch millions of health records, the latest examples of hospitals’ growing influence in the data economy. This breadth of access wasn’t always spelled out by hospitals and tech giants when the deals were… Continue reading Hospitals Give Tech Giants Access to Detailed Medical Records

New Rules Could Ease Patients’ Access to their Own Health Records

Blue stethoscope isolate on white background

The Trump administration is proposing steps aimed at improving patients’ access to their own health data, bolstering efforts to bring information including insurance claims, hospital and doctor records to digital devices such as smartphones. Federal health regulators are set to unveil two major proposed regulations closely watched by health and technology companies, amid a growing… Continue reading New Rules Could Ease Patients’ Access to their Own Health Records