The other day I wrote something about all the biomedical sensors that will be in us and on us in the coming year or two. The companies making these clearly intend to keep copies of the data they gather as part of their business plan. And why not? If it is anonymous, should you be okay with this? Would you share this kind of information — your electrolytes, your brain functions — like you share pictures from the party, or your workout times?
You can read the story here,
I do not have a position on this one way or another. What strikes me is that we are pursuing this headlong, armed with the social and judicial habits of a time when things like this didn’t exist.
This could have enormous potential in the healthcare industry, however, I think what is most interesting is that developments in information technology are happening faster than the policies that regulate them, which causes gaps in security. We just discussed this in our Information Law and Policy class. Related to this topic is the idea of “Privacy by Design,” which discusses the seven foundational principles for ensuring privacy and protecting sensitive personal information: http://www.ipc.on.ca/images/Resources/7foundationalprinciples.pdf