Facebook tried to access and match medical data – report

BTW: Anonymized data is a 'fake news' story as confirmed here:

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-do-advertisers-track-you-online-we-found-out/

Re: All part of the 'Shadow Profile' Economy

Next week when the CEO of Facebook appears in Washington, I fear this is all going to be lost on them.

For most, yes. For a few Senators, no. Wyden has a pretty good grip on things if Zuck is in front of his committee.

Re: All part of the 'Shadow Profile' Economy

but how is any of that going to fix 'Shadow Profiles' and merging of offline / online data from 3rd-Parties etc!

It will not. There is only one TECHNICAL fix and any LEGISLATIVE fix will be worked around technically unless the proper technical fix is in place as well. The TECHNICAL fix is complete, full and unconditional de-anonymization of the internet. Before you grab the torch and the pitchfork finish reading please. Deanonymization should be combined with mandating that ANY piece of personal data is digitally signed by its rightful owner (the originating entity) along with the circumstances when it was granted. Owning even a single piece of data without proper consent demonstrated by a signature should be punishable by 10% global turnover.

Why deanonymization - because the method for building shadow profiles is exactly this - deanonymization via statistics. That is being done already and the internet is already not anonymous. We are being tracked 24x7 and any anonymization can be removed completely in 30 minutes by serving a court order on any of the trackers. They will happily provide your full shadow profile including name, address, post code, sexual orientation, web browsing history, shopping history, etc.

As long as there is pretense of anonymity, there is no way of fighting this. It will be there. One way or another.

So the only way is to stop the anonymity (which does not exist anyway) and put everything into the hands of the user making owning any personal info without a signed direct consent a data protection offense. Reselling data (in any form) or removing signatures should be a criminal offense.

It will be sufficient for one large economy (f.e. Eu) to do that. All the rest will be dragged kicking and screaming into the new world (old actually - if you read Stephenson, Hamilton, etc - it is all there).

Re: Wrong Vector But Action Needed

"I wonder who has the resources and skill to achieve the desired improvement in patient outcomes."

Well, in the UK it is firmly and squarely the NHS. Which is mostly funded by the public and why most sane minded people rankle at the thought of its services being farmed off to third party service providers, including service providers in the US who have repeatedly shown that if there is a business depth to be plumbed, then they are happy to dispose of any ethics and go there as long as they can make a fast buck.

That said, there are always satellite services bought in by large organisations to assist them in making progress, and in the case of Google and the medical data; and I'm sure everyone had the best of intentions - but once again it seems to have gone awry with personal privacy being the last thing on anyone's mind as long as the deal gets done and the cash wrought.

Re: If a timely intervention can save or prolong a life, that’s priceless

Especially when the lives to be saved are only those who can afford those special treatment, while others can die if they can't pay. Are they going to make public anything they find, and refuse to ask any patent, royalty, etc. on any valuable finding?

Frankly, I hope people like Zuckerberg and Thiel won't live much longer than the average people...

Re: Is that the reason for havinig a "Zuckerberg General Hospital"...

Sadly no. Its amazing what 75 meeellion spondolics will get you.

Re: You've got piles!

And here's an ad for some ointment. Or maybe you're private messaging a friend about that hot session last night, and now a bit of a tingle. Fear not, here's an ad for a confidential, discrete STI clinic. Or an ad for a divorce lawyer. Or perhaps the algorithms will decide that's best sent to your partner's partner.

Or if you're in politics, perhaps that data will be of interest to some company that compiles political intelligence. Which is probably why politicians have now realised that data horders are targeting them, not just us.. So something must be done! To protect them, if not us. See also UK data retention that has an exclusion for our politicians, even though they may be involved in illegal activities.

But there needs to be a concerted ethical cleansing of the entire industry to make it clear that this kind of data hoarding & trading is not acceptable. At the very least, providers like Facepalm or Google should allow full profile views of the people they're profiling, with an ability to delete or correct data.

Re: Would You Lie To Me, Baby?

> "I am Spartacus!"

No, I'm Brian!

And so's my wife.