EPIC Releases New Report on Protecting Health Privacy in the Digital Age

According to Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), the organisation’s new report, Beyond HIPAA: Reimagining How Privacy Laws Apply to Health Data to Maximise Equity in the Digital Age, examines the health data privacy crisis created by unregulated digital technologies and weak privacy laws.

It argues that commercial surveillance extracts our health data to profile us, reveal conditions, influence behaviour, and charge more for care, with such practices worsening health outcomes and driving people away from care without proper protections.

The report contends that Big Tech acts as the architect of the surveillance apparatus that harvests health and other sensitive information, with profiles potentially making care harder and more expensive due to targeted advertising, surveillance pricing, and data broker sales to insurers. EPIC quotes its own senior counsel, Sara Geoghegan, warning of a crisis where lack of privacy leads to inaccessible care and eroded trust in the health system. EPIC will host a discussion on 21 January at 2 p.m. EST, exploring how insufficient privacy protections for health data translate into inequities and worse health outcomes.