Patient Privacy

Inadequate Healthcare Cybersecurity Maturity Jeopardizes Patient Privacy

by Sarai Rodriguez

The healthcare sector ranks lowest in several cybersecurity maturity domains, according to CYE's first Cybersecurity Maturity Report, which suggests that even organizations that handle highly...

Cerebral Notifies 3.1M Users of Healthcare Data Breach Stemming From Pixel Use

by Jill McKeon

Telehealth platform Cerebral reported a healthcare data breach to HHS impacting more than 3.1 million individuals. Cerebral provides online therapy and medication management to millions of...

FTC Proposes $7.8M Settlement With BetterHelp Over Improper Health Data Sharing

by Jill McKeon

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) proposed a $7.8 million settlement with online counseling service BetterHelp, resolving allegations of improper health data sharing practices. In addition, the...

Senators Introduce UPHOLD Privacy Act to Prevent Use of Health Data For Advertising

by Jill McKeon

US Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Mazie Hirono (D-HI) introduced the Upholding Protections for Health and Online Location Data (UPHOLD) Privacy Act,...

FTC Warns Amazon About Improper Health Data Sharing Following One Medical Acquisition

by Jill McKeon

Following Amazon’s finalized acquisition of membership-based primary care practice One Medical, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sent a letter to Amazon reminding it of its obligations to...

Senators Introduce Bill to Bolster HIPAA Protections For Patients Seeking Reproductive Healthcare

by Jill McKeon

US Senators Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Mazie Hirono (D-HI) introduced the Secure Access for Essential Reproductive (SAFER) Health Act, which offers strengthened HIPAA protections that would prohibit...

Telehealth Companies Under Scrutiny For Allegedly Sharing Health Data With Third-Party Advertisers

by Jill McKeon

Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Susan Collins (R-ME), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) sent letters to telehealth companies Cerebral, Monument, and WorkIt Health, addressing concerns...

Breach Reporting Requirements Are Top Concern For Security Teams

by Sarai Rodriguez

Cybersecurity leaders are buckling up for rising costs, a challenging talent shortage, and uncertain data breach reporting requirements going into 2023, according to a Deepwatch Q4 2022 SecOps...

Analysis of Addiction Treatment mHealth Sites Highlights Data Privacy Risks

by Jill McKeon

An analysis of a dozen opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment and recovery websites revealed significant data privacy concerns and a need for stronger legal protections for addiction treatment data, a...

CHIME Submits Comments to FTC on Proposed Data Security, Surveillance Rulemaking

by Jill McKeon

The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) submitted comments to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) surrounding the Commission’s Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking...

VA Senator Expresses Health Data Privacy Concerns in Letter to Meta

by Jill McKeon

Senator Mark R. Warner (D-VA) expressed significant health data privacy concerns surrounding the Meta pixel tracking tool in a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. As previously reported, the tool has...

CA Governor Enacts 2 Laws Protecting Abortion Data Privacy

by Jill McKeon

California Governor Gavin Newsom enacted two new bills into law that have implications for abortion data privacy within the state. As previously reported, the California State Legislature passed...

GAO Calls on OCR to Educate Patients on Telehealth Security, Privacy Risks

by Jill McKeon

The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) conducted a review of Medicare telehealth services delivered during the pandemic, recommending that the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) provide additional...

Senators Once Again Ask HHS to Update HIPAA, Citing Patient Privacy Concerns

by Jill McKeon

Spearheaded by US Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a group of 30 Senators urged HHS and the Biden Administration to strengthen HIPAA protections in order to further safeguard patient privacy in the wake of...

Third-Party Tracking on Abortion Clinic Websites Sparks Data Privacy Concerns

by Jill McKeon

Researchers discovered third-party tracking tools on the majority of analyzed abortion clinic websites, raising data privacy concerns, according to a research letter published in JAMA Internal...

Democratic Leaders Question Meta on Data Privacy Practices

by Jill McKeon

A group of US House Democrats from the Committee on Energy and Commerce sent a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg asking for clarification on the company’s data privacy practices. “We...

Analytics Co. Sues FTC, Denies Allegations of Improper Data Privacy Practices

by Jill McKeon

Idaho-based Kochava, a data marketing and analytics company, filed a lawsuit against the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and denied the Commission's allegations of the company’s improper...

Amazon’s Potential Acquisition of One Medical Sparks Health Data Privacy, Security Concerns

by Jill McKeon

Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) wrote a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) asking it to investigate Amazon’s plans to purchase primary care organization One Medical, citing health data...

Meta Faces Another Lawsuit Over Health Data Privacy Practices

by Jill McKeon

Meta is facing another lawsuit over its health data privacy practices. As previously reported, a report co-published by The Markup and STAT alleged that Meta (the parent company of Facebook)...

AMA: Patients Demand Health Data Privacy, Accountability, Transparency

by Jill McKeon

Three-quarters of surveyed patients expressed significant health data privacy concerns and confusion about how their health information is handled, the American Medical Association (AMA) discovered....