Dive Brief:
- Last week, technology experts at the World Economic Forum said although consumers are willing to share certain personal information on social media sites, they do not want to share their healthcare information.
- Michael Gregoire, CEO of CA Inc., said at the meeting consumers may be willing to pay to keep that information private.
- Healthcare privacy is a huge concern, especially with the big data breaches last year, such as the Anthem breach that affected close to 80 million people.
Dive Insight:
Companies like Google and LinkedIn offer free services in exchange for selling ads targeted to users based on their shared information. Michael McNamara, CEO of Flextronics International Ltd., said at the meeting consumers will want more privacy as they become more aware of the ads showing up on their computers, and may request companies to stop using their personal information. McNamara suggested this will require "more communication between what data's being captured and what isn't."
A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center last year regarding privacy and information sharing scenarios showed 52% of respondents said it would be "acceptable" to allow their physician to upload their health records to a new health information website being used to manage patient records, which is promised to be secure. The patients would have access to their records and the ability to schedule appointments online. However, 26% said it would be "not acceptable," and 20% said, "it depends," on the specific circumstances.
As previously reported by Healthcare Dive, healthcare had the highest number of data breaches (187) in the first half of 2015 and the most data records lost at 84.4 million.