Colorado Senator Mark Udall will offer welcoming remarks at the Technology Policy Institute’s Aspen Forum, scheduled for August 21-23. Senator Udall, elected to the U.S. Senate in 2008 after serving five terms as Representative of Colorado’s 2nd district, has worked to promote the development of Colorado’s aerospace industry, and the clean energy and high technology sectors. Senator Udall currently serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and the Select Committee on Intelligence.
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Better Data Needed on Data Privacy and Security Issues
Without substantially better data and analysis, policymakers cannot make informed decisions concerning data privacy and security legislation, stated Thomas Lenard in testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. During the hearing, “Privacy and Data Security: Protecting Consumers in the Modern World,” Lenard also stressed that data privacy and security are different issues and should be dealt with separately by policymakers.
Aspen Panel: Information and Privacy: In Search of a Data-Driven Policy
Data privacy raises issues that are central to the health of the Internet ecosystem and will be a major focus of this year’s TPI Aspen Forum. While proposals have emanated from the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Commerce, and Congress, few data exist on the nature and extent of the problem and how proposed privacy regulations would impact consumers. Distinguished speakers from academia, government and industry will debate the future of privacy policy during the discussion panel, “Information and Privacy: In Search of a Data-Driven Policy.” The TPI Aspen Forum is scheduled for August 21 – 23 in Aspen, Colorado.
The Illusory Privacy Problem in Sorrell v. IMS Health
Those in the habit of looking for privacy invasions can find them everywhere. This phenomenon is on display in the recent news coverage of Sorrell v. IMS Health Inc., a case currently under review by the Supreme Court. The litigation challenges a Vermont law that would limit the dissemination and use of prescription drug data for the purposes of marketing to physicians by pharmaceutical companies. The prescription data at issue identify the prescribing physician and pharmacy, but provide only limited detail about the patients (for example, the patient�s age in years and gender). Nevertheless, privacy organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) have filed amici curiae briefs sounding distress alarms for patient privacy. A recent New York Times article describes the case as one that puts the privacy interests of “little people” against the formidable powers of “Big Data.” The fear is that, in the information age, data subjects could be re-identified using the vast amount of auxiliary information available about each of us in commercial databases and on the internet.
Little Risk of Re-Identification through Health Data
Properly anonymized health data pose little risk of patient identification, state Jane Yakowitz and Daniel Barth-Jones in “The Illusory Privacy Problem in Sorrell v. IMS Health,” published today by the Technology Policy Institute. Moreover, if the Department of Health and Human Services were to abandon the distinction between personally identifiable and anonymized data (as the Federal Trade Commission has done in its recent report) “the result would be nothing short of disastrous for health care improvements and medical research,” according to the authors.