Data Privacy
There are 3 crucial pieces of personal data you don’t want exposed.
We give our data far too freely…without questioning or verifying if it’s necessary, or even legal for the business or organization to collect it. We also often have no way of knowing if the business or organization requesting it has the means of protecting it forever.
These are the top 3 things you want to safeguard and why:
- Personal Health Information (mental and physical) including prescriptions, assessments, diagnosis, reports. Not only is this data ripe for identity theft, it can sabotage future employability, insurability, and relationships if breached.
- Your Driver’s License Number will be forever yours, don’t give it out except where required by law (which is most often only as related to driving) Check your provincial legislation, and don’t let people convince you they need to record it.
- Your Social Insurance/Security number is a unique identifier for life. Give it only when required by law, a secure credit check, or other logical reason. Ask questions. Always verify that the business or institution has security measures in place to protect that information, forever.
Whenever Personally Identifiable Information or Personal Health Information is being requested, the requester MUST PROVIDE you their privacy policy and obtain your consent. Organizations should clearly inform you of the purposes for the collection, use or disclosure of personal information.
Tips:
- Most businesses you interact with don’t need all of the information they’re requesting of you. They just want it to make their job easier in targeting you for future business. Be more careful about sharing details, and ask questions.
- Healthcare practices obviously need a good deal of health history in order to diagnose or treat you properly, but did you know that many smaller healthcare practices don’t meet minimum data security requirements*? Verify that your health provider has privacy policies and monitored data security installed on their systems (It’s required by Privacy Law in most provinces & territories).
- Financial institutions are heavily regulated, audited, and monitored, but what about your local Accountants office? Your Lawyer? Do they have robust data security in their practices to protect your sensitive data forever?
About the Author:
Anne Genge is the CEO and Co-Founder of Alexio Corporation. She and her certified team of privacy and security professionals help Dentists, Physicians, and other Healthcare providers to secure their data, systems, and comply with Privacy Laws and College mandates.
Healthcare Compliance Network is a division of Alexio Corporation, located in Markham Ontario, Canada. Alexio Corporation develops and delivers affordable automated data security solutions for Healthcare Practices Canada-wide. More information is available at www.getalexio.com
*HCN Security Assessment Results, Healthcare practices 2014 – 2017
