Consumers on the warpath to protect personal data privacy are making strides in state houses. For instance, here’s an update on Oregon’s Senate Bill 703 re selling health information. If you use Big Data at all, you’ve probably been following this Bill. It’s basically saying that anyone selling personal health information, although thoroughly de-identified, would need to pay the source for the privilege, i.e., you and me. As you may imagine, research groups and analysts who may touch any Oregonian’s de-identified PHI, not to mention privacy officers at the source of de-identified data, are watching this closely.
You can likely thank Facebook backlash for this Bill. Taking personal data and sharing it without user knowledge has caused huge problems for the social media giant. Now we’re hearing that they’re going to reel it all in, but how do you get the genie back in the bottle? The trust is gone, and SB 703 is just one instance of how outraged consumers are at how data is being used.
From a compliance perspective, the information, aka personal data, is already de-identified PHI, so that’s not the basis for the Bill. It’s a clear call for personal data privacy protection beyond the pale of what we’ve seen up to now. You can also look at the yet-to-go-live California Consumer Privacy Act as another example of privacy protection taken to the Nth degree.
This isn’t to say that personal data privacy isn’t important because it absolutely is, it’s merely to point out that the logistical reality of complying with either SB 703 or CCPA is a nightmare we’ve yet to face. You can hardly blame people for playing ostrich when confronted with such a daunting task. You can also hardly blame people for pushing back on companies being able to use personal information for free.
We’ll be writing more on CCPA and its potential effect on business operations both outside and within the healthcare environment. In the meantime, should Oregon’s SB 703 move further down the path to fruition, we’ll weigh in on that, too.
Need specialized insight on these and other data privacy and information security regulations? Contact Apgar & Associates, LLC at 503-384-2538. Our in-the-trenches knowledge and professional consulting will help you and your workforce with compliance and critical certification preparation.
