this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2023
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So … medical information is only protected if handled by medical professionals. If the abusive mega-corporation owned by a psycho billionaire wants to do whatever the fuck they want with it, good luck.
HIPPA is a law that governs how people and companies within the healthcare system in the US are allowed (and required) to handle, protect, and share data. It was definitely needed, and rectified a lot of bad practices - health care providers were really very sloppy and cavalier about handling data - but even with that limited scope, it’s very complicated.
It doesn’t cover anybody else. Yes, health information SHOULD absolutely be protected more stringently so that OTHER major players can’t abuse your privacy, but that wasn’t the focus of HIPPA.
The gist of HIPAA is that the patient decides who knows their health status. If they want to announce every rash and sniffle on Meta and thus to every advertiser and government agent in existence, HIPAA won’t stop them.
Doctors are allowed to broadcast their own, personal health issues all over social media, but not anyone else’s.