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Privacy
Why is our health care system and government broken? Part 4.
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Dr Zafar Essak - Vancouver, BC - October 10, 2024
Part 4 in a series covering different aspects of our health care system and government. Let’s apply our thinking to the problems and solutions.
Part 4. No consent called "passive consent" as BC elementary and high school students are presented survey questionnaires.
First, you may not even realize that in BC elementary and high schools, students of all ages (early years, middle years and youth) have been presented with surveys to complete. This has been done without requiring parental consent or even awareness.
The BC NDP Government refers to it as "passive consent". Teachers are providing children with tablet computers to answer questions about themselves, their families and others living in the household. Children who are reluctant and don’t know if they should do this are reassured it is all fine, they can trust this is all okay.
Some children may be too young to realize that it’s like talking to strangers. These days we should all know the dangers are worse with computers online. So, why would we be teaching young children to reveal information into a computer? (1)
Furthermore, who is PopDataBC and what do they do? Who funds it?
The paradox of privacy and security
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While privacy and security are a priority for people these days, the things they do to protect themselves may actually undermine it.
With all the spam phone calls, and even text messages, some people have been looking at installing a variety of apps to identify who the caller is. There are quite a few apps for this, but before you leap to installing one take a look at how they work and how it may affect you and your community of contacts in your phone.
Getting easier to de-Google or de-Apple
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You hate those ads and pesky messages from Google, but you’ve become increasingly dependent on their services, right? Cloud storage, Gmail, Google Calendar and so on have just become so necessary that you feel you have to put up with the intrusions on your privacy and constant marketing of 'stuf', and being stalked by trackers everywhere you go? Well, there are alternatives, but one is growing rapidly and can do everything you want and need without those downsides: the eFoundation (Android) operating system.
Tracking Pixel
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I learned a new term today: ‘tracking pixel’. Why should you care? Read on:
A tracking pixel is an HTML code snippet which is loaded when a user visits a website or opens an email.
… various information about the user is also transmitted using this method.
What is Bill C-51 about?
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Have you been wondering what Bill C-51, the Anti-terrorism Act 2015, is about?
Here's a two minute guide.
The Free Software movement reaches thirty years, why is it so important?
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Thirty years ago in September 1983 Richard Stallman launched the campaign for freedom in computing, for software to be free. He is the founder and president of the Free Software Foundation (fsf.org), pioneer of the concept of copyleft and the main author of the GNU General Public License, the most widely used free software license.
He writes, "Non-free software makes users surrender control over their computing to someone else, but now there is another way to lose it: Service as a Software Substitute, or SaaSS, which means letting someone else’s server do your own computing activities. Both non-free software and SaaSS can spy on the user, shackle the user, and even attack the user."
US Federal Judge finds Google's Gmail scanning might violate wiretap law
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Some patients and others have noticed when dealing with an MVA claim they start seeing more ads for lawyers when they are browsing the Internet making them wonder if someone is scanning their email.
Wired magazine reported on this week's decision in a proposed class-action alleging Google wiretaps Gmail as part of its business model.
"A federal judge today found that Google may have breached federal and California wiretapping laws for machine-scanning Gmail messages as part of its business model to create user profiles and provide targeted advertising. ...
"The decision is also a blow to Yahoo, whose free email platform with more than 300 million users also scans email to deliver ads. Microsoft’s rebranded free Outlook webmail offering does not scan messages of its 400 million users.
Fix released: Is Android phone intermittently sending SMS messages to wrong contact?
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Addendum: On 2011-01-22 Android announced a fix is being rolled out and patches are available, click here for details.
It is hard to know what level of concern one should have regarding posts on the Internet about Android phones having a bug such that text messages are sent to the wrong and random contact.
Twitter agrees to settlement with FTC over privacy charges
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The settlement between Twitter and the US Federal Trade Commission over charges that customers privacy was put at risk hit the news this past week. The settlement may have wide reaching implications.
David Vladeck, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection said, “When a company promises consumers that their personal information is secure, it must live up to that promise.” And if a company allows consumers to designate their information as private, it must use reasonable security to support that designation, he said.
BC Auditor General issues report on Electronic Health Record (EHR) Implementation.
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Health professionals not effectively or adequately engaged.
Approach should ensure health professionals, stakeholders and the public are informed.
On February 17, 2010 the Auditor General of BC, John Doyle, issued his report on “Electronic Health Record Implementation in British Columbia” which is available on their website http://www.bcauditor.com
In his report, the BC Auditor General, acknowledges “The development and implementation of an EHR system … is a complex and high-risk endeavour … because of the large investment of public funds” and “because collecting, storing and disclosing information electronically raises concerns about the privacy and security of personal health information”.
