Doctor, Two Hospital Employees Plead Guilty to
Violating Pressly's Privacy

Dr. Jay Holland of Little Rock and two former employees of St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center pleaded guilty Monday to misdemeanor violations of the federal medical records privacy law, the U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI in Little Rock announced.

Holland, Sarah Elizabeth Miller of England and Candida Griffin of Little Rock admitted accessing "without any legitimate purpose" the medical records of Anne Pressly, the KATV-TV, Channel 7, reporter who was fatally attacked in her home in October. For the violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, each faces up to one year in prison, a fine of up to $50,000, or both. Sentencing has not been scheduled.

Mobile phone register must respect privacy

The government’s order for a database for all mobile phone subscribers might be regrettable if viewed to be rolling back the remarkable freedoms Kenyans enjoy in regard to telephone ownership and communications.

There are few other places in the world where mobiles phones are so widely available at such friendly prices; and to cap it all, where lines from any of the networks are available for virtually free even from roadside kiosks and hawkers will be activated instantly with no bureaucracy on the identity of the subscriber.

But sometimes, the public good must override some freedoms. There is no doubt that lack of records on subscribers has provided the gateway for criminals to enjoy the luxury of anonymous communications.

Kidnappers, extortionists, murderers and even terrorists have been freely using our telecommunications, secure in the knowledge that there is no record of the telephone lines they can acquire, use for a short time in commission of a crime, and discard immediately.

Official: Panel wants privacy protection for
electronic medical records

A federal advisory panel on patient privacy wants encryption, strong access controls and audits to protecting patients' medical records under the program advanced by the economic stimulus law, according to the co-chair of the group.

“The data will be encrypted and not set for easy access,” Steven Findlay, co-chair of the Health Information Technology Standards Committee’s Privacy and Security Workgroup, told Federal Computer Week July 23. “There will be a focus on access controls and audits.”

Under the economic stimulus law, the Obama administration and Congress are offering at least $17 billion in payments to doctors’ offices and hospitals that adopt and "meaningfully" use certified electronic health records (EHRs). Congress set up the Health IT Standards Committee to recommend standards for certification and meaningful use.

Labour plans privacy complaint against Bennett

Ministers and departments need to consider the Privacy Act when they release personal information, Privacy Commissioner Marie Shroff says.

Social Development Minister Paula Bennett was today unapologetic for releasing the income details of two solo mothers who criticised Government policy, saying she did it to round out the story.

Seattle man used Limewire for identity theft

A Seattle man was sentenced to more than three years in prison Tuesday for using the Limewire file-sharing service to lift personal information from computers across the U.S.

The case highlights a type of identity theft that is probably more common than most people realize, said Kathryn Warma, assistant U.S. attorney in the Computer Hacking and Internet Crimes Unit of the U.S. Attorney's Office.

The man, Frederick Wood, typed words like "tax return" and "account" into the Limewire search box, Warma said. That allowed him to find and access computers on the Limewire network with shared folders that contained tax returns and bank account information.