Confidentiality & Privacy Issues
- Protection of health information is an important confidentiality issue. Medical records contain some of the most sensitive information that exists about an individual. Doctors, hospitals and laboratories that maintain medical records must follow the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. HIPAA requires these providers to notify patients about their privacy practices. Unfortunately, according to a Fox News interview with a representative from Patient Privacy Rights, many patients don't read the privacy notice before they sign it. As a consequence, patients may unwittingly give their doctors and insurance companies permission to sell their information.
- Perhaps a consumer's greatest confidentiality fear is that someone will steal and misuse his credit card information. In a 2002 breach, computer hackers stole credit and debit card records of 45.7 million customers of retailer T.J. Maxx. Police in Florida charged six people with fraud for using credit card numbers thought to have been obtained in the breach to buy $1 million in merchandise. In addition to spending time and resources to protect their credit rating, the Identity Theft Resource Center reports that victims of identity theft experience feelings of dread, rage and helplessness.
- A significant privacy issue facing individuals today is the ease of publishing pictures and videos on the Internet. Mobile device users can take pictures and videos of the people around them without obtaining their consent, and share the images on the Internet. The results can be embarrassing and surprising. In June 2009, CNN reported that an American woman discovered that a shop in Czechoslovakia had used a photo of her family from a social networking site as an advertisement in its storefront window. Many individuals will never know that their images have been published or used without their permission.
- Privacy issues surround the Transportation Security Administration's use of full-body X-ray scanners in airports around the United States. The machines "see through" clothing, displaying an image of the passenger's naked body to screeners. TSA says it does not retain the images, but critics question the assertion. Many passengers have opted to undergo an invasive pat-down search rather than pass through the so-called "naked strip search machine."
