[governance] Re: editorial to post Searching the Web for Flu Outbreaks

[Jeffrey A. Williams]

Debbie and all,

  My and our members answer is already known, and it is an
emphatic NO!  Google has repeatedly demonstrated that it's
form of "anonymization" is weak at best.  As such, trusting
Google to be able to handle such medical data records in a
private, secure and respectful way of the owner of such records
is at this time, not reasonably effective.

  From our members point of view, as you already know Debbie,
unless or until Google dramatically changes it's TOS to meet already
existing Constitutional, and Bill of Rights protections in respect to
managing or handling consumers or users data across the board,
we cannot in good conscience or in the interest of the "Greater
Good" abide in Google's current business practices accordingly.

Deborah Peel wrote:

> Should the NYTimes or the public take Google at its word on
> "anonymization"?
>
> Repeatedly both amateurs and computer scientists have unmasked
> people's identities from supposedly "de-identified" or "anonymized"
> data bases released for research purposes. In the past few years,
> "anonymized" AOL search data was re-identified, "de-identified"
> Netflix movie reviews were re-identified, and a "de-identified"
> genetic data base released by the NIH had to be closed because the
> data was re-identifiable. Latanya Sweeney PhD famously re-identified
> former Governor William Weld and his family's health records from a
> "de-identified" ambulatory care data set released by the state of MA.
>
> It turns out that creating truly anonymous data sets, especially of
> health data, is very difficult. This matters a great deal to privacy
> because every byte of data about every one of us is being collected
> and sold by the data mining industry. Once health data is sold, it can
> never be made private again. The health data mining industry is
> especially large and robust, selling everything from prescription
> records, genetic test records, insurance claims data, to data from
> hospital and physician electronic medical records systems. This
> matters because the buyers are employers, insurers, financial
> institutions, and Fusion Centers.
>
> Patient Privacy Rights believes that health information should not be
> used for job or credit discrimination--especially today. Corporations
> or researchers that release "de-identified" or "anonymized" health
> data should be required to release the algorithms that prove the data
> cannot be re-identified, in order to keep Americans' sensitive data
> from being re-identified and sold to businesses and the government
> without consent.
>
> deb
>
>
> ttp://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/28/opinion/28fri3.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper
>
>                              Top of Form
>                             Bottom of Form
> [New York Times]
>
>                                Opinion
>
> November 28, 2008
>
> Editorial
>
> Searching the Web for Flu Outbreaks
>
> Two recent studies have shown the promise of using data from search
> engines to provide early warning of influenza outbreaks — and the
> pitfalls and limitations, as well. Privacy considerations aside, it is
> a technology that will need refinement if it is to be used by public
> health officials for early warning duties.
>
> One study, published by the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases,
> examined the relationship between searches for influenza-related terms
> on the Yahoo search engine and the actual occurrence of influenza over
> a four-year period in the United States. The searches spiked one to
> three weeks in advance of a sharp rise in laboratory cultures testing
> positive for influenza and up to five weeks in advance of a rise in
> mortality due to influenza.
>
> The other study, published in the journal Nature, found that Google
> searches for influenza-related terms could actually predict, with high
> accuracy, spikes in doctor-diagnosed influenza cases that only
> registered on traditional surveillance networks a week or two later.
> This study was conducted by Google in collaboration with the Centers
> for Disease Control and Prevention, giving it substantial credibility.
>
> The underlying assumption is that when people start feeling sick, one
> of the first things many of them do is check the Internet for medical
> information, even before they see a doctor. Detecting an upsurge in
> flu cases a week or two earlier than normal could provide substantial
> health benefits. Doctors and clinics could stock up and dispense
> vaccines and antiviral medicines in time to help patients, hospitals
> could prepare for an influx of sick people, and health officials could
> alert the public.
>
> The approach has limitations. It is based on what search terms people
> choose to use, which is subject to change and will need to be updated
> frequently. It can sound a false alarm if lots of people start
> searching for information even though they are not personally sick. It
> provides no information on what strains are circulating or how
> virulent they are.
>
> And, of course, it raises privacy issues. Google mitigates the privacy
> concerns by revealing only anonymous, aggregated data, but there are
> no clear legal or technological safeguards to prevent disclosure of
> individual search histories should the courts or the government demand
> it. Still, the potential benefits seem high and the risks containable
> — for the flu in this country, and for other infectious diseases as
> well.
>
> __________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus
> signature database 3649 (20081128) __________
>
> The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.
>
> http://www.eset.com

Regards,

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