E-Mail is Not Protected on Third Party Servers
If medical privacy is important to you, you might want to think twice about e-mailing your physician, depending upon where he stores his data. Under current U.S. law, e-mail stored on a third party server is considered abandoned after 180 days and the government may search it without a warrant.
According to Wired, a coalition of internet service providers and other groups has asked Congress to update the law to afford e-mail stored on servers the same protection as email stored at home. The Obama administration holds that this would be an unnecessary burden on the government. So far, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is the only court to rule on the issue. It disagrees.
Although e-mail may be protected, once ObamaCare’s electronic medical record requirements take effect, no warrants will be necessary to search your medical record. HIPAA allows government to search medical records without permission.
So, the government doesn’t want the responsibility (and the workload that comes with it) of protecting sensitive consumer information online, but it does want to control the Internet for the sake of so-called “net neutrality”…
Go figure.
This is a scary thought.
How else will Donald Burwick know what medical care you should have, if he can’t see your medical records?
Ultimately there is no assurance of privacy with EMRs.
Very interesting post.
Do you have the slightest shred of evidence to support your final paragraph? I mean, you don’t even have incorrect arguments to support your assertion; it’s just a bald assertion.
@Marian C:
I suggest that you read the statute in question. If you do not wish to do that, you might read the digest of it in the April 11, 2003 copy of MMWR.
Note that it specifically states that dissemination to public health authorities is explicitly allowed for any stated “public health activity.” Note also that the section on permitted PHI disclosures without authorization includes, among many other things, “PHI can be disclosed to public health authorities and their authorized agents for public health purposes including but not limited to public health surveillance, investigations, and interventions” and for “oversight activities authorized by law.”
That covers just about everyone but you and your physician.