Health app developers, what are your questions about HIPAA?

Health app developers, what are your questions about HIPAA?

A resource from the US Office for Civil Rights

From the OCR Website: 

We are experiencing an explosion of technology using data about the health of individuals in innovative ways to improve health outcomes. Building privacy and security protections into technology products enhances their value by providing some assurance to users that the information is safe and secure and will be used and disclosed only as approved or expected. Such protections are sometimes required by federal and state laws, including the HIPAA Privacy, Security and Breach Notification Rules.

Yet many mHealth developers are not familiar with the HIPAA Rules and how the rules would apply to their products. Use this site to help OCR understand what guidance on HIPAA regulations would be helpful to you.Please tell us: What topics should we address in guidance? What current provisions leave you scratching your heads? How should this guidance look in order to make it more understandable, more accessible? Use this page to submit your questions about HIPAA. Or present a use case. Look at what your peers are discussing, comment on it and vote on which topics or use cases would be the most helpful or important to your work.

OCR launched this platform for mobile health developers and others interested in the intersection of health information technology and HIPAA privacy and security protections. Anyone may browse the site. Users who want to submit questions, offer comments on other submissions or vote on the relevancy of the topic can register using their email addresses, but their identities and addresses are anonymous to OCR. Posting or commenting on a question on this site will not subject anyone to enforcement action.


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How to Protect Your Privacy as More Apps Harvest Your Data

A New York Times Personal Tech series article by Brian X. Chen

Retrieved By Health eConsultation 0 15641 Article rating: 5.0

In this article written by Brian X. Chen from the New York Times he discusses some of the potential ways in which mobile apps that you download to your phone may be collecting and using your personal data in ways you did not know.

One of the key takeaways is that there are ways in which to protect yourself and tools that can help you figure out which apps are collecting your data and how to remove their ability to do so.

Stay Private: How to Hide Your Webcam, Mute Your Mic, and Turn Off Notifications

An article from Zapier

Nathan E Botts 0 15563 Article rating: 5.0

One consideration as you gather and store more personal health information on your computer and devices is making sure that you are not inadvertently sharing this information (or some other aspect of your personal health) through your webcam or mic.

This article from Zapier outlines several different ways and some handy applications that can help you control this on your PC or MAC.

Determining the Value of Compromising Your Privacy

An article from Engadget

Nathan E Botts 0 10543 Article rating: No rating

This article from the Engadget web magazine discusses how your online searching behaviors might be monitored by different companies that you are unaware about. This data is likely used to build profiles that may impact the advertisements you see, credit ratings received, and other potential social network aspects as of yet identified. 

Sharing Sensitive Health Information: Protect Your Privacy and Improve Your Health

A guide from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology

Nathan E Botts 0 54129 Article rating: 5.0

This 2-page ONC published graphic novel (aka comic book) is a short guide that helps illustrate why protecting your health privacy is important and issues to consider when sharing sensitive health information.

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What is Health eDefense?

Health eDefense is the act of protecting your personal health information. This not only protects your privacy, security, and safety, but also protects the data of your family, friends, and others in your community.

The Health eDefense platform is dedicated to providing consumers with actionable information on how to protect their personal health information effectively from cyber threats. Health eDefense provides informational content and education related to cyber security, privacy and consent, security, and related topics and policies such as HIPAA and GDPR.

Cyber security is impacting our daily lives, and our personal and protected health information is a target for hackers and criminals looking to make money off of our personal data. Your personal health data will always be about your health, demographics, social, lifestyle, financial history, and other related details. Once taken, they cannot be taken back.

We think the best cybersecurity tool is education and awareness, and we hope to provide users with tools and insight to protect themselves and their data better.