{"id":1756,"date":"2012-02-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-02-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/otava.test\/hipaa-compliance-concerns-with-google\/"},"modified":"2012-02-08T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-02-08T00:00:00","slug":"hipaa-compliance-concerns-with-google","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/hipaa-compliance-concerns-with-google\/","title":{"rendered":"HIPAA Compliance Concerns with Google"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After reading a blog post about House Representative Mary Bono Mack (R-Calif.) and her concerns about Google\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/intl\/en_us\/policies\/privacy\/preview\/\">new privacy policy<\/a> potentially violating <a href=\"https:\/\/otavawebsite.wpengine.com\/compliance-security\/hipaa-compliant-cloud\/\">HIPAA compliance<\/a> standards, I\u2019ve concluded that:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Searching for a medical phrase does not make that phrase protected\/patient health information (PHI)<\/li>\n<li>Users that volunteer search phrases and use Google are consenting to their privacy policy<\/li>\n<li>It\u2019s unfortunate a House Representative does not understand HIPAA<\/li>\n<li>It\u2019s unfortunate a House Representative does not understand Google or their privacy policy<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In an interview with USA Today\u2019s Technology Live blog, Mack used an example in which a user searches for cervical cancer on Google, doesn\u2019t log out, and then is tracked across other products online (?). I assume she means the information they collect will influence the ads shown on Google\u2019s Display Network across other sites you may visit.<\/p>\n<p>Google doesn\u2019t store any actual patient health information, such as the kind that a physician might collect in a clinic. SearchEngineLand.com\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/googles-new-privacy-policy-may-violate-hipaa-congresswoman-says-110053\">article<\/a> cites Google\u2019s new privacy policy, stating:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>When showing you tailored ads, we will not associate a cookie or anonymous identifier with sensitive categories, such as those based on race, religion, sexual orientation or health.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>They also state that they require <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/intl\/en_us\/policies\/privacy\/preview\/faq\/#toc-terms-sensitive-info\">opt-in consent<\/a> when it comes to sharing any sensitive personal information. In her interview, Mack also questions the definition of sensitive data, \u201cThey are saying that they do not track sensitive data like that. I don\u2019t know who determines what\u2019s sensitive and what\u2019s not. And that\u2019s probably another question on another day and a more extensive hearing.\u201d Perhaps they should go by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)\u2019s definition as written in their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hhs.gov\/ocr\/privacy\/hipaa\/understanding\/summary\/index.html\">Summary of the Privacy Rule<\/a>, as they are the leading government agency:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The Privacy Rule protects all &#8220;individually identifiable health information&#8221; held or transmitted by a covered entity or its business associate, in any form or media, whether electronic, paper, or oral. The Privacy Rule calls this information &#8220;protected health information (PHI).&#8221;12<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIndividually identifiable health information\u201d is information, including demographic data, that relates to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>the individual\u2019s past, present or future physical or mental health or condition,<\/li>\n<li>the provision of health care to the individual, or<\/li>\n<li>the past, present, or future payment for the provision of health care to the individual,<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>and that identifies the individual or for which there is a reasonable basis to believe it can be used to identify the individual.13\u00a0 Individually identifiable health information includes many common identifiers (e.g., name, address, birth date, Social Security Number).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Yale.edu\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/hipaa.yale.edu\/guidance\/index.html#phi\">HIPAA Guide<\/a> offers more specific identifiers, including medical record number, account number, certificate\/license number, web URL, IP addresses, finger or voice prints, etc.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, the question remains, how can the Department of Health and Human Services and our government expect HIPAA compliance from healthcare and related organizations if government representatives appear to be unfamiliar with the standards and equally out of touch with technology and the use thereof? While the acts passed in 2009, I think healthcare organizations, business associates and the lawmakers could all benefit from a more in-depth review of the law.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;d like a refresher on HIPAA, our <a href=\"https:\/\/otavawebsite.wpengine.com\/reference\/hipaa-faq\/\">HIPAA FAQ<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/otavawebsite.wpengine.com\/reference\/hipaa-glossary-of-terms\/\">HIPAA Glossary of Terms<\/a>\u00a0could help.<\/p>\n<p>References:<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/googles-new-privacy-policy-may-violate-hipaa-congresswoman-says-110053\">Google\u2019s New Privacy Policy May Violate HIPAA, Congresswoman Says<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/intl\/en_us\/policies\/privacy\/preview\/\">Google Preview: Privacy Policy<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/intl\/en_us\/policies\/privacy\/preview\/faq\/#toc-terms-sensitive-info\">Google Preview: Privacy FAQ<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hhs.gov\/ocr\/privacy\/hipaa\/understanding\/summary\/index.html\">HHS\u2019s Summary of the Privacy Rule<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/hipaa.yale.edu\/guidance\/index.html\">Yale.edu\u2019s Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act Guide<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After reading a blog post about House Representative Mary Bono Mack (R-Calif.) and her concerns about Google\u2019s new privacy policy potentially violating HIPAA compliance standards, I\u2019ve concluded that: Searching for a medical phrase does not make that phrase protected\/patient health information (PHI) Users that volunteer search phrases and use Google are consenting to their privacy policy It\u2019s unfortunate a House Representative does not understand HIPAA It\u2019s unfortunate a House Representative does not understand Google or their privacy policy In an interview with USA Today\u2019s Technology Live blog, Mack used an example in which a user searches for cervical cancer on Google, doesn\u2019t log out, and then is tracked across other products online (?). I assume she means the information they collect will influence the ads shown on Google\u2019s Display Network across other sites you may visit. Google doesn\u2019t store any actual patient health information, such as the kind that a physician might collect in a clinic. SearchEngineLand.com\u2019s article cites Google\u2019s new privacy policy, stating: When showing you tailored ads, we will not associate a cookie or anonymous identifier with sensitive categories, such as those based on race, religion, sexual orientation or health. They also state that they require opt-in consent&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"other_category":[],"class_list":["post-1756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>HIPAA Compliance Concerns with Google | OTAVA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It\u2019s unfortunate that the House Representative does not understand HIPAA or Google&#039;s privacy policy. Google has not violated HIPAA compliance standards.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/hipaa-compliance-concerns-with-google\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"HIPAA Compliance Concerns with Google\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It\u2019s unfortunate that the House Representative does not understand HIPAA or Google&#039;s privacy policy. 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