I started my search using Google News. I typed Google and privacy and got a very blog post from the Wall Street Journal in the Health blog section. Victoria E. Knight wrote the blog. I chose Google News because I really like to see what’s on the news. Moreover, I was curious to see if Google would publish articles about their privacy on their news website. The search led me to an article only but the article would give access to the report on consumers’ privacy put together by the World Privacy Forum:
http://www.worldprivacyforum.org/pdf/WPF_PHR_02_20_2008fs.pdf
The article is in fact a blog on Health and privacy. As Google came out with Google News or Google scholar, it possible to go to Google Health online. This online feature allows consumers to record and track their medical records and features information about health, medical conditions and diseases. People can create their own digital-health records. Google is not the only company who started doing business in the medical field. There is competition from Microsoft’s Health Vault and myoptumhealth.com. Some are in favor of the digital medical records but others oppose its use saying that it may damage consumers’ privacy. In particular, the World Privacy Forum argues that privacy is at stake. also, the Health insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) provides minimum privacy for health insurance companies and providers. The medical record itself is not protected. As a result, companies like Google Health are not considered covered entities by the HIPAA.
This article was useful to me because I did not know that Google Health existed. I also did not know that other corporations were going into the digital health record business. It is something new for me. I only typed “Google and privacy” in Google News and this article came out as second on the search results. I am not familiar with the Wall Street Journal so I decided to have a try. The blog was published on the Wall Street journal Health blog section on December 1st, 2008.
The information is not trying to convince me. I feel that the information is informing me on a issue related to health, security and the internet. To be honest, I am glad to have found this article because I know now that these type of digital health features exist online. The point of the writer is to make us aware of the existence of these tools and also to make us think about the privacy of our personal information. Some people might feel safe to write their medical information on the internet. Other people might feel insecure. It is up to the readers to decide what works for their interests; however privacy is still a big issue and Google and the other companies will have to reassure the public of securing private data.
Blog can have comments and everybody can share his/her opinion. On the same day, this article received many comments. Some of them in favor of the service, others criticizing the lack of privacy of it.
Here is the link for the blog:
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/12/01/unitedhealth-takes-on-microsoft-google-with-online-health-venture/