Medical data privacy is yelling for help both in Taiwan and UK!

Medical data is sort of sensitive personal data that should be protected carefully. The guardian daily reported the NHS medical research plan may threaten privacy (see: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/nov/17/nhs-patient-privacy-medical-research) two days before. It said ‘the prime minister and Department of Health want to give Britain's research institutes an advantage against overseas competitors by opening up more than 50m records, to identify patients who might be willing to take part in trials of new drugs and treatments’ . Certainly, NHS insists they will ‘advise on issues involving consent, confidentiality, security and data sharing in social care as well as health’. However, should we believe in these promises (consent, confidentiality and security) or not?

Unfortunately, the answer may not be so positive in Taiwan. One employee of the Bureau of National Health Insurance of Taiwan not only sold the personal data including the addresses and photos to be used as information to ask for debts (mostly through a violent way) but also accepted the sexual treats from Nov. 11 2001. The Bureau of National Health Insurance collect the medical data with the guarantee of data security and the data subjects’ consent, however, it seems that the bureau always found excuses such as the accidental cases are not their fault and they are not responsible for the security problems. Believe it or not, once something happens, it will never be the government’s responsibility!

It may be the reason why people need the constitution in order to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms and that is the reason why we should have the privacy law to protect the rights you may think you do not need so much.