[Med-privacy] Dr. Deborah Peel

[peter marshall]

Fast Company
Fast Talk: Privacy Warrior
From: Issue 122 | February 2008 | Page 28 | By: Cora Daniels

Dr. Deborah Peel
Founder and President, Patient Privacy Rights
Austin, Texas

Dr. Deborah Peel, 56, a practicing psychiatrist, founded Patient=20
Privacy Rights, a consumer watchdog organization. She began fighting=20
for medical privacy in 1993 after President Clinton proposed that every=20=

doctor-patient encounter be entered into a database.

"Americans should be terrified. We have no control over our electronic=20=

health information. Private corporations interested in data mining, not=20=

privacy protection, built our system. If Congress passes its bill=20
allowing for an electronic health system, we'll be talking about a=20
mammoth amount of information hemorrhaging around the globe. And like=20
Paris Hilton's sex video, it will live forever in cyberspace.

The threat is not really cybercrime. You don't need to hack in to get=20
this stuff. Our private information is already for sale. Exposed health=20=

data could become the most prevalent cause of discrimination. In 200=20
years of judicial decisions, the most strongly held privacy rights are=20=

health related. All that is now disintegrating."

Copyright =A9 2008 Mansueto Ventures LLC.=20=