Facebook Says It Stopped ‘Top Secret’ Plan To Mine Medical Records, Hashing To De-Anonymize Data
Facebook reportedly shelved one of its “top secret” projects led by Dr. Freddy Abnousi, to correlate anonymized medical records with that of its user base using hashing to correlate the data with known identities of users.
Facebook, through a covert program run by a medical doctor, asked hospitals to share anonymized patient data in what could be classified as a Big Data workaround to evade HIPAA and HI-TECH legal issues the arise when hospitals share raw data of its patients without a medically accepted purpose.
The “top secret” project was headed by interventional cardiologist Freddy Abnousi. Dr. Abnousi was tasked with investigating whether Facebook information could “improve patient care, initially with a focus on cardiovascular health.” Over the past few months, Dr. Abnousi secretly asked Stanford Medical School, American College of Cardiology, and likely VA (yet to be confirmed if Palo Alto VA was solicited) to enter into a data sharing project.
The company specifically sought data about medical conditions and prescriptions. It then planned to correlate that data with patient data Facebook already has from users.
Even though the data from the medical centers would obscure personally identifiable information, ie patient’s name, Facebook planned to de-anonymize the data using “hashing,” a common computer science technique to match individuals with existing data sets. Facebook promised to only use the data for research conducted by the medical community (wink, wink).
After reports surfaced into Facebook’s mishandling of user data where 87 million users had their personalized data scraped by Cambridge Analytica, the project was shelved, at least that is what Facebook is telling the public.
Can we trust Facebook to not be evil with its use of this data?
Is Facebook Evil?
In 2014, Facebook admitted it experimented with the newsfeed of 689,000 users to manipulate their emotions. The details of the experiment were published in an article entitled “Experimental Evidence Of Massive-Scale Emotional Contagion Through Social Networks” published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
Facebook initially asserted it had informed consent for the study. But, a later investigation led to a consensus that Facebook had not provided effective notice to study participants. Further, the techniques used induced negative effects on users that likely caused emotional harm, which, if medical doctors or psychologists were involved, was likely unethical.
According to Forbes quote:
“Informed consent, required for research and in the healthcare context, is one of the strongest forms of consent the law requires. It is not enough simply to fail to check a box or fail to opt out. People must be informed of the risks and benefits and affirmatively agree.
“The problem with the Facebook experiment is that it exposed the rather weak form of consent that exists in much of our online transactions. I’m not sure that informed consent is the cure-all, but it would certainly have been better than the much weaker form of consent involved with this experiment.”
So again, can Facebook have access to healthcare records and not be evil with that data? What might Facebook want with cardiology data related to its own research?
About Freddy Abnousi And Celina Yong
It is worth noting Freddy Abnousi received his MD from Standford and went on to lead “innovative healthcare efforts” at McKinsey & Co and Google. He now serves as Chief Medical Officer at Cordynamix, an interventional heart failure company. Meanwhile, at Facebook, Abnousi specializes in coronary and structural interventions and runs confidential projects.
Dr. Abnousi’s wife is Celina Yong, MD, a PD Soros Fellow and Chinese immigrant. The foundation was created by Paul and Daisy Soros to fund the graduate education of immigrants. The former, Paul, is the older brother of mega-billionaire George Soros.
In addition to medical school at Stanford, the duo attended Oxford for an MBA and London School of Economics to study health policy, planning and financing. The two founded a medical device company called Sense Therapeutics.
Dr. Yong is an assistant professor at Stanford Medical School and Palo Alto VA Medical Center. Note the possible connection with Abnousi’s Facebook ask and access to VA data.
This project should sound familiar.
RELATED: Foreign Google Company To Data Mine Veterans Health Records
Google DeepMind Project At VA
Google owned DeepMind, an England-based Artificial Intelligence company, received approval for access to veterans’ genomic data from the Million Veteran Program (MVP) to supposedly help tackle Acute Kidney Injury (AKI).
Former secretary David Shulkin promised the data would be anonymized, but veterans raised numerous concerns given the proposed use of AI to data mine the information. It’s common knowledge with access to data stored from cookies and phone data that Google could easily tie in anonymized data with an individual’s actual identity.
READ: How Google Hashes Your Data
In effect, Google would then own your private health data and psychometric data from everything you search for and purchase online. Such information about users would be the Holy Grail for markets but serve as a massive privacy breach for veterans.
Given what purportedly occurred as a result of Cambridge Analytica’s scrape of Facebook data, it stands to reason Google could likewise be susceptible for analytics companies to purchase and pull out the information they seek.
Presently, Google owns a massive database selling and buying supposedly anonymized online records that can predict shopping and other behaviors. That information is supposedly anonymized behind hashes, but hashes can easily be de-anonymized for a small fee of a few cents per name.
At the end of the day, Google and Facebook are circling their wagons to get access to our health records to complete their knowledge of all Americans, including veterans.
Flow Health Debacle
At the end of 2016, I exposed that VA almost gave access to the MVP data program to a smaller AI company called Flow Health that had Russian ties to programmers and developers in that country.
RELATED: Flow Health Reveals Sketchy Profit Plan For Veteran Health Data
After I exposed that the deal was likely unlawful, VA canceled the plan. But one year later, VA announced a new deal with a Google owned company, instead.
The problem with all these plans is the company then owns your data. And once that data is owned, they can do anything with it including selling the data for foreign governments.
One big concern with veteran genomic data is it could be used to engineer smart biological weapons that target certain groups of people, or military units, or other groups with similar genomic make-up.
Before, that information was not readily available. Now, it is readily available to any partner VA teams up with for any purpose.
Creation Of Global Unique Identifier (GUID) To Solve Problem?
According to a recent NCBI publication, “As one of the several effective solutions for personal privacy protection, a global unique identifier (GUID) is linked with hash codes that are generated from combinations of personally identifiable information (PII) by a one-way hash algorithm. On the GUID server, no PII is permitted to be stored, and only GUID and hash codes are allowed. The quality of PII entry is critical to the GUID system.”
Not to scare the pants off you this Saturday morning, but if you are wondering about the direction of Big Data, why it is begging for your data, and the broader plan, here is an excerpt about what researchers from China and Bethesda, Maryland wrote, in italics.
Those researchers are as follows:
- Xianlai Chen, PhD, Institute of Information Security and Big Data, Central South University, Changsha, China
- Yang C. Fann, PhD, Intramural IT and Bioinformatics Program, Division of Intramural, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States
- Matthew McAuliffe, PhD, Division of Computational Science, Center for Information Technology, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States
- David Vismer, PhD, Sapient Government Services, Arlington, VA, United States
- Rong Yang, BN, 7th Ward, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China
- Rong Yang, 7th Ward, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, 87 Xiangya Road, Changsha, 410008, China
Intro: Checking Questionable Entry of Personally Identifiable Information Encrypted by One-Way Hash Transformation
“To accelerate biomedical discovery, it is critical for researchers to collaborate, especially to share their study data with each other. After announcing the Big Data Research and Development Initiative to explore how big data could be used to address important problems faced by the government in 2012, Obama’s administration proposed Precision Medicine Initiative [1] in 2015. The latter will seek to collect data from large populations and integrate biomedical research with health care. In general, subject data is collected from multiple sites. There needs to be a link between the data from those different sites on the same subject. Personally identifiable information (PII) is often used to identify and aggregate different types of data (eg, laboratory, imaging, genetic, clinical assessment data) of the same subject collected from multiple sites [2]. Generally PII includes an ID (eg, patient ID, social security number, or national ID), name, birth date, birth place, address, postcode, and so on [3]; however, sharing PII may lead to disclosing privacy of an individual. Therefore, when medical data is shared, privacy protection is a very important task of biomedical research [4,5], especially when PII is a concern [6]. Patient data must be protected before they are transferred [7,8]. In the United States, sharing health information must comply with the Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information and the Common Rule [9,10].
“There are various methods to protect a patient’s privacy, including data anonymization [10,11], deidentification [12–14], depersonalization [15], limited dataset [16], and hash transformation [17,18]. Among the unique ID methods of protecting patient privacy, the global unique identifier (GUID) algorithm is an effective solution. It transforms combination patterns of PII fields into hash codes by a one-way hash algorithm. It can be used to identify a participant across sites or studies, without transferring any portion of PII. Multiple PII fields can be gathered and combined in different patterns, facilitating matching even in the face of variations across collection sites. As part of the GUID algorithm, the identifying information undergoes one-way hash before being transferred to the central system, so that PII is never transmitted or stored outside collection sites.
“For the GUID system [18] to work properly, PII must be collected with a high degree of accurate entry. If there are many errors in the items captured, none of the hash codes may match and there will be a false split (ie, where the same subject is given 2 different GUIDs). Although several methods, including double data entry, were proposed to improve data entry accuracy, the most effective way is prompting questionable fields during data entry. Therefore, while registering a subject, the client application of the GUID system would ideally check the PII input to allow the user to correct them, if any errors are found. This task must depend on the information stored on the GUID server; however, only the GUID and its related hash codes are stored on the GUID server (ie, no portion of PII is stored on the server). In addition, a GUID is a random code that is not directly generated from PII or hash codes. Hash codes are related to PII, but they have been mapped by a one-way hash algorithm, and it is impossible to reidentify PII fields. Thus, it is problematic to find exact questionable inputs while registering a subject. Fortunately, in the GUID system, there are multiple hash codes, which are transformed from combinations of PII fields and where some of the PII fields are overlapping within different hash codes. Therefore, it is possible to identify and reduce data entry error based on matching hash codes and its corresponding PII fields. Our study will explore it based on set theory.
“Before exploring the analysis of questionable data input while registering a subject in the GUID system, it is necessary to review the principle of the system.
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5336604/
The greatest voting bloc in the USA is composed of veterans. The problem is getting them to vote; and then to vote effectively, the same way. The greatest detriment to our individual freedoms is the collection of several hundred selected elite who conspire together for their own agendas, rather than as servants of the commonweal–Congress. “We have met the enemy, and it is us,” quoth Pogo [Walt Kelly, cartoonist].
Traditionally, the way to eliminate tyrants is to cut off their heads. That is an extreme measure, usually requiring the death in conflict of the operators. Most veterans have had enough of that. Improving the lot of our lives must be to terminate the non-service of those making up unhelpful rules that tend to restrict freedoms, rather than enhance better policies for all. The vehicle for redemption is the secret vote.
Vote the incumbent bums out! Refresh Congress with new young blood. Replace all who have homesteaded on The Hill for more than two terms. Register. And vote (it’s a secret ballot).
SCOTUS has ruled states can’t impose Term Limits. But the aggregate of individual voters may, simply by voting for alternative representatives (?) to The Swamp. Vets get the last morsels at the public table after giving the most to stock it. Let’s get together, and renew the promise of the Founding Fathers to sustain the republic, the new MinuteMen (and Women). Each of us, individually and separately, can diminish the evils of corruption–and corruption is rampant in Congress–led by hoary predators too long at the head of the table.
We need to send our collective message by putting the fear of replacement in the minds of all the selfish Senators who assume superior status over the least of us. The only way the V.A. will ever improve is through new attitudes in Congress members, delivering promises so far unkept.
Think about it. If all the veteran’s organizations worked together to replace the non-veterans in Congress, we’d all be better off–at east for a time, until the newbies learn how to cheat us. And then we could do it again. Our way.
I see the Big Three Piggy VSO Groups are now in the pop-up advertising on this site. How **special**…maybe they will learn something about their earnings of piggy status?!
Still, a piggy pop-up is disquieting all the same.
04/08/2018
Dear Benjamin Krause,
Face Book [Google, Twitter, and the others] all want to make a buck like DHB Armor Group Inc. [DAVID H. BROOKS—23,000+ bad Bullet Proof Vests sent to the troops on the battlefield in Iraq].
Until we look into their actions, most people will not know of the disaster or the consequences.
As the Acting DEA Director Mr. Robert Patterson looked the part, the agency’s actions did not hold water on March 20, 2018 (two (2) stores in a population of 3,000 selling 60,000,000 oxy’s [Virginia]).
What can we predict? More of the same!
So do we need a shake up? Yes! And this time Congress stated it on March 20th.
Apparently, the people are on the move.
Sincerely,
Don Karg
“May we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion” D.D. Eisenhower
march hare, I thought there were laws on the books about treason, to subversive anti-American activities. Like ceasing freedom of speech, denying our Constitutional rights, rogue foreign government’s usurpation of the U.S., or out to over-throw our *Constitutional Republic.* I guess not. The deep-state nor our sacred cow shadow government and bankers won’t allow it. Trump, those before him, media, VA to Congress has shown how things really are.
Absolutely T. Not the same country i grew up in, the politicians, the bankers, (the worst scum of all), our leaders, local on up, are just a group of thieves anymore, milking the populace like a herd of golden guernsey’s. It wasn’t too lone ago people were hung doing what these people are doing now, but the good news is history has a way of repeating itself.
March Hare, Yeah like Rome and others fell. And it’s only to get worse:
5 Minutes.
“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auxFqxoYALk&feature=em-uploademail”
Guess the social media scum are just going to keep making it worse too. Openly wanting a lefty take over and war.
Personally the only social media site I trust at face value is apetube.
Hahahaàaaaaaaaaaa! Now THAT was funny.
From;
“The Next News Network”
Gary Franchie reporting.
Dated: April 7, 2018
(3:22 minutes long)
Titled;
“Facebook Makes Shocking Admission About Your Private Messages – Time to DELETE FACEBOOK!”
If you haven’t already done so, be advised it will continue – without your permission!
Zuckerberg is slated to testify on April 11!
Will he show is the bet!
Elf, I told my G-son and others that all that crap was more than likely being done. Not to trust “private or secure” anything…. period. If it’s “social media,” online, over a cell phone, baby monitors, wireless, even land lines, “smart TVs/appliances, or high tech crap in vehicles…. none of it is safe nor secure, nothing is. That is why I would like to create my own Zeta chat boards that MAY be a bit safer…. but everything can be hacked. It all can be called … living in a police and surveillance state.
Why do people think Steve Jobs and other tech heads –*disallowed*– wireless stuff in THEIR homes or around their family? But they allowed the consumers to believe they were smothered in high tech shit like some homes they show on idiot TV. The warnings are out there. Two things: Security and health issues (especially in kids) caused by such electronics with 5 G coming along soon if not here already.
TOR isn’t secure liked believed to be, no email is secure. Gee who financially backed and helped create TOR, FB, spy crap, and the rest? Why do people think LEOs, communist, foreigners, and gubberment hate codes and encryption they can’t easily break.
Are the sheep aware what can be done with those ‘weather cams’ and how close they can zoom into someones area, yard or window?
Satellites: Are people aware what the earliest sats can do? Old scrapped info reported and showed how they can zoom in to read license plates on the road or in your yard to watch your kids laying out in the sun. Then they switched stories about not having that capability and can only see so many hundred feet above ground?
Like Gaggle Earth, they can we can’t. And of course the sheep believed that too. Or why some out there didn’t want to see metal roofs to be allowed on private homes? Not to mention their under water, under ground penetrating capabilities, to various laser capabilities today.
What about the I Spy stuff LEOs and colleges have? Drones for civilian use now they claim they all have to follow strict laws and rules…. BS. See through walls technology, listening devices, cameras, license plate reading at high speeds, companies can tell what and how your electricity is used for what devices. There is no end to it. Then laws coming out we can’t record, video or take pictures, or stand by and merely watch something?????????
Better do what a couple of women did to escape it all… go live in a cave to escape it all and far away from all the use of chemicals causing environmental health issues.
“https://govbanknotes.wordpress.com/2018/04/08/supreme-court-rules-cops-can-kill-non-threatening-people-as-long-as-they-say-they-were-scared/”
“https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2018/04/08/american-police-state-tightens-net/”
“https://www.washingtontimes.com/specials/cybersecurity-2018/” Blah blah.
Conspiracy, tin foil hat blah blah excuses and lies.
“https://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/04/07/homeland-security-database-would-track-journalists-media-influencers-report.html”
And here people think I am kidding about living in a “open air prison/concentration camp.” Trump doing nothing about it. Brought to us over the generations by the sacred cows, deep-state, and foreign shadow government.
“It’s All Going to Pot” Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard
And people still want to give me mega-shit for never *liking idea* of, lack of privacy, thugs using FB live to show their deeds as it happens and afterwards with piles of cash, mother locally duct taping her infant turdler to the wall like a spider web on FB Live, people foolishly sharing everything…resistance may be futile, but I for one, have been waiting for Facebook to be held accountable or at least get caught with how they are selling everything and it will come back to bite every human…George Orwell’s “1984”, the “Thought Police” and the VA’s own Disruptive Behavior Committee’s…a Veteran should be very wary of their digital footprint and watch your bank accounts often from the leeches around us.
Mark Zuckerburg has made a suckerburger out of millions….I’m still not joining, resistance is NOT futile.
“Red or Blue Pill, Neo?”
If I eat both, does that make a purple matrix? I might like that. But not datamining my ass to come back and bite me in the ass because….NOTHING is free, as long as there’s entitled leeches like Suckerbergs.
Facebook from the very beginning never took into account that thing called human deviant behavior or…was counting on it to create them more $$$$….ignorance is bliss until your caught.
Actually, more I think about it, it still rather frightens me how *easily* humanity just handed over their information to such social media companies all for that thing called ego and id, and all we need to look back to is IBM back in pre-Nazi Germany and earlobe-deep in Nazi Germany contracts to document, numerate, then eventually exterminate millions….look no further than old man Prescott Bush for that IBM contract…
….now, think about this for a moment; what if Facebook and tech existed back in Nazi Germany Era? People willingly disarmed themselves, did everything told to and believed it, then the Nazi madness started, but many Germans remained in denial. Like many FB users…
hurts my brain
Fork FaceBook, and 4Q2, Google,and MS. march hare is spot on!!!!
These folks take the old saying one step further. Figures don’t lie but liars figure. These liers are figurine to lie about figures. In addition, Hitler said, ” If you’re gonna lie, go big. The bigger the lie, the more people will believe it. “
@thebrownmoose
I got it straight from MSM.
It appears that uncle is creating havens to supply clean works and the od deactivator for folks to administer their own street purchases, on site, under supervised care.
@thebrownmoose
This was in response to your statement: “Hello, what about the illegal drugs. Oh wait, that’s right, we don’t treat thousands of patients to prescribe illegal drugs therefore we can’t use this excuse.”
I have to apologize; I’m not locating the story I saw, where uncle is wanting to adopt a similar program that Canada has implemented for a year or so. What I stated above is my non-clinical paraphrase of the important elements the interviewed person answered when questioned. The story ran last week on network tv.
If people are thinking about privacy rights or using some phony HIPPA protections may be facing some cruel jokes…or lies. Here, there are countless redundant laws and ordinances in place that require our med files to be released to every LEO agency out there including Homeland that oversees every damn thing including VA health care or civy, any prescription use and why or what for, along with many others allowed to research us our most innocent or private issues. For years now that has included purchasing certain OTC sinus meds. The showing of ID, signatures, and allowances for such actions, the spreading of our info to God only knows where…. that circles the many state agencies, all pharmacies taken while under any MD, VA or clinic care, mental health clinics and care, type of disorder, your entire med files from wherever, and on and on. This includes info nation wide. And every VA out there too. Privacy? Freedom?
There is gossip, some news reports, and claims that I can’t get direct answers about. Like new laws or hidden rules stating that no pain meds scripts can be made over one week periods of time. Meaning weekly runs to the MD, more testing and pill counts, continuous background or pharmacy checks, checks for doctor shopping, near constant multiple agencies and law checks for whatever, tons of hassles and more pain to do so, creating more issues for us, and more costs to see a MD for pain meds if one is lucky enough to get them. Or having to also sit in some clinic four to six hours or more to play their games. All this I am told is completely legal, Constitutional and ethical. Medical board approved, AMA and all others… approve. No harm done for the safety of all and to protect us from ourselves.
Now just imagine how many eyes, spies, communist, activist scum, VA staff, ass-wipe corrupt activist/union scum I have been dealing with all have access to our information. I have been shown more than once that nothng is private and certain scum have access to whatever they desire. Private phone numbers, email, address, personal information etc.. Locally to foreign nations for whatever reasons who also have part in the intrusive IT campaign for info or ‘aid’. Concentration camps for chronic pain sufferers or mental health issues? Or for just being a veteran? On top of everything else others or the gubbermint want to see happen to us or more loss of any rights we may have left. People better wake up and quick.
‘Community Healthcare fighting opioid abuse by linking to Indiana’s controlled substance prescription database’
“https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/community-healthcare-fighting-opioid-abuse-by-linking-to-indiana-s/article_73d48efd-6dd4-5b6a-b3e8-58f0e6ce7df1.html”
Wow. Now I understand why the sudden OMG we got problems with OPIOIDS. Just like 9/11, needed a reason for American citizens to back a war (create a crisis) to get around Privacy laws and invade the middle east. Now, needed a reason to justify sharing our medical information to get around HIPAA/Privacy laws so we create a crisis. It makes perfect sense. We use there’s an issue with OPIOIDS to get people on the bandwagon (create a crisis) of the need to share our medical information.
Hello, what about the illegal drugs. Oh wait, that’s right, we don’t treat thousands of patients to prescribe illegal drugs therefore we can’t use this excuse.
The VA is already sharing our integrated electronic medical records with agencies outside it. The VA is currently breaking the HIPAA, Privacy and Security Rule regarding our records. The VA classifies our records as open which prevents them from being tracked, monitored, protected, minimum necessary or requirement to obtain a written authorization or a medical need to know. See, with this classification the VA claims it cannot tell the Veteran who accessed their record but the VA isn’t telling you, you can provide a written letter to your local privacy officer to mark your record sensitive for tracking purposes. The VA automatically does it for the employees but a Veteran has to ask for it. This makes it hard for a Veteran to track who access and to know all the unauthorized individuals who have accessed them. Once you get your privacy officer to mark your record sensitive, the system will start tracking accesses. You can provide your privacy officer a written authorization for a SPAR (sensitive patient access report) which will show you who accessed and what date it was accessed. Remember, the tracking starts the date the record is marked and cannot go backwards. Request your SPAR monthly to see the # of unauthorized individuals and unidentified agencies who have accessed your records. Also, our records according to HIPAA/Privacy are to be kept separate and the psychotherapy notes are to be separate and protected. So, why did the VA violate the law to integrate them and then classify them open to prevent assessors from having to use a passcode/pin to access?
I asked several VA privacy officers and my patient advocate why and they told me to provide me better care to me. Really??? When did I lose my voice and decision rights? When is it ok to break the law because of someone’s feelings or beliefs?
I noticed in my medical shortly after moving to TN and registering with the local VAMC they did a search in 3 neighboring states for drugs/prescriptions I might have received from these states – really. NO one told me about this requirement.
How many years did we as a society go without electronic records and were able to manage and now its been done to us without regard to what we want.
These agencies/organizations/companies have discovered a better way to manipulate us for profit. We are losing our rights, our protections, our choice, our decisions, etc for someone else to control us.
Yes. They are selling our shit to the highest bidder. I’ve had two appts. with QTC in the last couple months. One of those appts. was a hearing test. Now I’m getting all kinds of phone calls trying to sell me a hearing aid.FTVA.
One of the first things law enforcement wants is your facebook account. WHY? Employers want access to your facebook WHY? I would imagine VA would like ones facebook account as well. Why, so they can screw the populace at will and yank and pull on your chain any time they want. Information is power and everybody wants it.
I want to share with you about what the VA is doing regarding our electronic medical record. I don’t know everything or have all the answers but it’s based on my recent experience and conversations with privacy officers and VA employees.
I had a HIPAA/Privacy violation I learned of in 2017. (I have 2 confirmed HHS violations so far of the +/- 10 HIPAA/Privacy violation filed on VA and my local VAMC. Of course, HHS only provided technical assistance to the VA and my VAMC.)
When I discovered the violations I immediately filed complaints with my VMAC and HHS. Of course, VA has found no privacy violations but HHS has found 2 so far. The privacy officers and VA employees have told me the following:
1. VA has taken our electronic medical record, mental health record and psychotherapy notes and combined them into one integrated electronic medical record – this in itself is a violation of HIPAA/Privacy;
2. VA has classified our integrated electronic medical record open – this in itself is a violation of HIPAA/Privacy. It allows anyone with access to VA’s system complete access without a need for a signed consent from the Veteran (patient). My SPAR (sensitive patient access report) shows VA employees in other states, Department of Defense and other agencies (I don’t know who these other entities are and haven’t asked.). With our integrated electronic medical record being open prevents compliance with HIPAA/Privacy because VA cannot monitor access, control minimum necessary, protect, prevent unauthorized access, ensure a written request is received for access, etc. (Side note: all access to psychotherapy notes even treatment from other mental health doctors who aren’t the author of the notes must obtain the patient (Veteran) written authorization per HIPAA/Privacy and VA Privacy Policy.)
3. VA automatically marks VA employee records as sensitive. It allows the VA to only track who has accessed the integrated electronic medical record. Veterans must provide a written letter asking the privacy officer to mark their record sensitive, and the tracking begins the date the record is marked. After the record is marked sensitive, the Veteran can provide a written request to their privacy officer requesting a SPAR report. The SPAR provides the name and date of access to your record.
I’ve asked why and were told from my local VAMC to the Central Office Privacy Office, to provide the Veteran with the best possible care. I couldn’t not ask for the VA to change the classification and to separate my records because I was told it would be denied. I have a confirmed HHS violations towards the VA and they provided technical assistance – whatever that means. Is it fixed, I don’t think so.
The question is, why is VA doing this? Are they already sharing our medical data? Why combine our psychotherapy notes into our medical record when HIPAA/Privacy restricts it and states they aren’t used in treatment and will be kept separated and protected?
My thoughts, the VA is already sharing our data (medical and psychological) with various organizations and calling it ‘providing the best possible care’ to explain why they did this in violation of HIPAA/Privacy laws.
Don’t believe me, provide your privacy officer with a letter requesting to have your records marked sensitive then wait a month then provide your privacy officer a letter requesting a SPAR. Remember, the start date is the date your records were marked sensitive. Every month request a SPAR and see who or what (organization) has access your records.
In four months, I had 40 unauthorized and unknown individuals and agencies/organizations access my records and I hadn’t received any treatment during those four months. I was able to find some of the individuals online by googling their name with VA in the google search. I had several in other states in the VA system accessing my records. I can assume maybe some where in the same social media forums. Their job titles were not medical or mental health providers either.
So, I stopped receiving treatment with the VA and fear going to civilian doctors for almost a year now. I’m not providing this to raise arms or for any other reason but to inform you of what happened to me and what I’ve learned.
Thanks brownmoose, i had to take similar action. Someone should tell the VA that microsoft is the virus. The VA has never been good a securing medical records. I just hope you can find treatment somewhere that takes security seriously. Wondering how many data breaches VA had today, they probably don’t even know.
I never signed up for any of those BS social media bs things. Letting people know when your
brushing your teeth or shopping at Walmart’s etc. never trusted that worm looking
Zuckerberg or any bergs especially his coo sandberg.
They knew exactly what they were doing mining our information.
The real crime is they got caught.
Hey, if you think it’s true then it’s not a lie or if you tell a lie often enough it becomes true.
Ben,
I appreciate your hard work in exposing all the wrongdoings being done to us, Veterans. I’m glad we have someone watching our backs and preventing more harm and damage to us.
What I don’t understand is why we, Veterans, are targets to so many organizations, companies, etc? Why are we, Veterans, treated with such disregard to our health, safety, privacy, etc? Why are we, Veterans, being exploited?
Thank you for everything you do for us.
The real accountability begins when Zuckerberg walks out of the hearing and somebody puts some .30-06 through his face.
What a difference four and a half decades can make. Back in the Army Intel days, our common “jokes” were, “In God We Trust, Everyone Else We Monitor”, or, “DIRNSA Is Watching You” referring to Directorate NSA.
Today, we’re being probed, and prodded and mined and sapped and hashed and carved up into little bitty pieces of data available to the highest bidder who will some day likely use it against us, all in the guise of “betterment of the societal experience”. KMMFA.
“T”
Tennessee Ernie’s best recording was, IMO, “16 Tons”!
“Another day older and deeper in debt. St. Peter don’t call me, because I can’t go. I owe my soul to the company store!”
Elf, agreed. That song has stuck with me all my life. Funny, used to sing that with the guys at the hobo camps when younger too. Used to take those old transistor small radios for them to pack along with them. That and the song from ‘Porgy and Bess,” musical now banned I think. “We got plenty of nothin’ and nothin’ is plenty for me” …..
Sang that song or hummed it countless times at worksites, the mines, foundries, over 2000 degree coal to coke ovens, hard labor fun, etc. Yep, brings back some memories. This stuff keeps popping up in my head trying to remember some things in the past.
It’s already happening – using it against us. It’s to control us and take away all of our rights to become obedient slaves. Slowly take their rights away by false claims ‘it’s to provide you with better treatment or service’; ensure they cannot hold us accountable and provide agencies to pretend we’ll enforce the violators; ensure the legal system cost a fortunate so people cannot afford it; gather all data on individuals to use their secrets or sensitive data against them to control them (they know we fear exposure and not fitting in); we keep wages low – low enough to keep them alive and desperate enough to do anything to have a little more; control the resources (food, water, etc); etc. Allow chaos through drugs (legal or not), human trafficking, division of people through their beliefs, manipulate through TV and social media, manipulate people to hate others based on their skin color, religious beliefs, etc….
“the brown moose”,
The first thing they’ve got to do, which is being tried now, is *”DISARM THE POPULATION!”*
I don’t think that will happen in my lifetime. At least I pray it won’t!
Elf, it’s happening. “Villages” in Illinois, Oregon and their issues, to only God knows where else. Here we wouldn’t know crap until it’s too late due to the censoring capabilities in place, deeply in place. The gun grabber’s ambiguous laws or city ordinances they want to pass and can have passed due to the city slickers and town people, college youth, Jr High kiddies, who hate anything to do about any weapons, hunting, fishing, or country living actually. If it isn’t something from the O magazine or Martha Stewart living they don’t want it here. “No dirty jobs wanted or allowed here,” per city council and Zoning board ass-hats. Along with other issues the Constitution or our rights don’t matter one iota.
The process of picking on vets has been going on for years… while there seems to be near total media silence on it or we may hear something on some alternative news site or radio. One by one, “village” by “village” they will get their United Nation’s and the shadow governments wishes fulfilled. And this is not mere conspiracy theory.
The other day at the library I noticed not one gun, hunting, fishing, outdoor magazines, etc., was available on their racks, none. Nothing like the old days where they had countless newspapers from around the nation and any magazine you’d care to see was available. Not today. Kroger’s grocery store has more choices of magazines than our public Demoncrat/college ruled library has. Even trying to find out of town news rags or papers from our capital city is more than difficult to find if can be found at all today easily or locally. More censoring and total lack of access to happenings and news locally and all around. I asked a couple of young librarian chicks about that too. Again.. more tax dollars needed, not much interest in that stuff anymore, to not wanting to introduce the local youth to “violence,” “destroying wildlife,” or “guns.” “All going to E-zines and paid subscriptions only. Blah blah blah. Odd, they had plenty of female, Hollywood crap and trendy mags out. More of that signs of the times and social engineering going on the masses must be too brain-dead to notice or care about.
Locally the college crowds and town cliques want to do away with diesel shows to tractor pulls since it must be hickish and lacks “culture” or high society interests. They just want to put on the “show” during a county fair event only. While the college cliques put out pleas to not call us “townies” or “country hicks” anymore. It gives them a bad image but we are still treated like dirt and suppose to bow to their studies and class projects to live under. Colleges and councils just want “white collar job opportunities here and to compliment college degrees/studies.”
I think they’ve tested the waters with so much stupid crap like using PCP care that costs us more money, more traveling, more hassles, while claiming it’s better for us. Tested the waters with stupid laws, entertainment being a priority, forced injections/testings, to the high costs of living, LEOs shooting helpless vets to the disabled, total corporate controls over our lives… to whatever… and it worked. The sheep were mostly silent as we are oppressed more and more without representation or concerns from filth at the top. I don’t have much faith in unity in any area of need.
Amen, Brownmoose.
Trust Zucker-bugger? Would I trust Satan, Pol Pot, Ariel Sharon, Soros, Bush, Hillary, Marx, Bolsheviks, Masons, a rattler in my lap with dong hanging out, etc? Those like him or Bill Gates? ROTFLMBO Yesterday I just supposedly pushed a NO button on a pop-up page from FB that is not to allow them to do “Facial Recognition Programs” on me or my page…for real, no lie. I play on FB for about as long as I can sit, not long, and do a scan. New record…. ta da…. over ten, 10, thousand tracking files and cookies found and held. One vet that was getting blocked while discussing local corruption and VA issues finally allowed him to let a ‘praise the VA’ post to go through. Damn funny stuff it is. But he is in Florida and not a constant care getter from them. I told him to count his blessings and beware. Being censored must not be having a deep affect on most. Oh la la la let’s suck up more distractions and have fun la la la, bah bah bah.
Like others have posted… trust no-one. We are living in days exactly like the days of the communist, Marx, Bolshevik take over of Russia turned the Soviet Union with a holocaust more terrible than that proclaimed in WW2…much worse. The only difference here is how they all are doing the killing and mass murdering legally or illegally, soft kill or hard kills. But sacred cows, the machine, can do, say, whatever they want. There is filth out there bragging about this stuff too, and writing books about it, and on lefty TV shows bragging about it. The American public and sheep go…. bah bah… duh. ‘We want free stuff.’ “We want open borders.” “Love will cure the world.” Barf barf.
Let’s not lose sight that all social media is playing this ‘secret’ gaming, censoring, and data collecting while claiming it’s all good or for good reasons. Google, foreign IT companies, Visa foreigners, the endless list, is going to major cities and hick towns all claiming to provide better record keeping, instant medical file sharing for emergencies to get record time health care. Say what? The hell they say. They are all bragging about going to come, or are already in state capitols with Med colleges and VA hospitals to improve everything. They be “hashing” for sure.
My beliefs are still the same forty five or so years later including the gifts of technology. Or like some VA idiot telling me “Iam here from the government or VA and here to help.” If human-kind touches anything with potentials/possibles for good it will be ruined, spoiled, misused, used for war, and destroyed if touched by the same varmints called bi-peds or humans. The products of advanced civilization… is death and destruction.
Putting Zuck-bugger or any of his filth in front of Congress or while under an oath means nothing. Just more circus maximus deluxe in center ring. No more, no less, more BS and dog and pony shows.
The below scum. Are they doing anything about all the censoring, HIPPA violations, nepotism, corruption, VA and the state’s health care networks forms of retaliation and more?? Hell no.
Gov. Holcomb like Pence, Daniels and those before them are nothing but traitors, tyrants, and oppressors. Keep signing bills making it more difficult to get pain meds or forcing disabled people to travel more and pay more, serving the wants of more money by the med community, to get a simple medication. With plenty of phony excuses and lies to back thier stinking thinking up. Do people see what is really happening plus all the censoring and sabre rattling? With Trumpster sitting on his hands on many issues.
More BS. This stuff and visa types will help fill VA positions and IT spy systems, etc. We are supposed to trust these clowns that were out in the streets protesting against everything American including our Constitution to our freedom of speech for all??? Get real.
ATTENTION: Will people fully understand what the hell is actually happening?????!!!!!!!!! Continue on…..
While Trumpster is again saying ‘wait and see’ about DACA and illegals the below is a step ahead of him (And Trumpster knows it) in action screwing our state totally up more. What a game it is the lying trash, all of them. Again the sheep go bah bah bah, no worries, let’s all eat Bon Bons and watch Rosanne and ball games. Bah ba ba bahhhh.
“Professional licenses for DACA recipients
The state will once again begin awarding professional licenses for DACA recipients, often called Dreamers.
The measure was a response to recent changes the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency made to its application forms that effectively blocked Indiana’s roughly 9,000 DACA participants from getting or renewing licenses in more than 70 occupations, from hair styling to architecture to nursing.
DACA participants are young immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally as children but have been granted legal work status under the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
Holcomb signed Senate Enrolled Act 419 Wednesday.”
“https://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2018/02/13/alcohol-marijuana-abortion-voting-education-and-more-where-bills-stand-halfway-point-2018-legislativ/317437002/”
Like Tennessee Ernie Ford used to say. ‘Bless your pea-picking heart’ Ben for having this blog that allows for the sharing and massive amounts of info.
Unregulated capitalism is a revolutionary force. The corporations in this country are rotten to the core. they poison our water and land, harvest and sell our most personal data, create epidemics, consume our natural resources, they lie, they deceive, they are killing our citizens, and the list goes on and on, what do our leaders in congress do, nothing. Zuckerberg and a whole shitload of CEO’s should pay for what they are doing/did to this country, they are traitors by every definition. I had seen this coming years ago when Zuckerberg meet with Pres Bush. To trust any corporation is a mistake, because there is no accountability anymore.
Suckerbook, trust Suckerbook, now thats a sick joke.
As soon as I read the “family name” of “Soros”, I knew something shady is afoot!
I wonder why no one has ever investigated the older brother, as they have “old prune faced George” Soros. You know, the “Confirmed Nazi Collaborator” during WWII; source: “the 60 minutes interview”.
I wonder what would come up on this dirt bag?
On Abnousi – his Facebook page used to read “secret” – now it only reads “confidential”. I saw something on the news media yesterday, or Thursday, concerning this little change!
As “Rosie” says, “Trust no one!”
__________________
On a side note;
Facebook, Twitter, Google and all the other websites out there are chomping at the bit to get as much information as possible on as many people as possible -for WHAT – that seems to be the question nowadays!
I hope Congress treats Zuckerberg as bad, or good, (depending on your point of view) as they did that little prick who raised the price of medicine by a whole lot!
(He got prison time)!!!!!!
We’ll see come Tuesday when “Zuckerberg” has to testify!
Glad ben is reporting this stuff otherwise i.would have no idea whats happening
I’m glad Ben is reporting on this stuff too, and grateful to all who post.
Hey guys!
Wanna know a secret?
TRUST NO ONE!!!
ROSIE WHY IN GOD’S NAME HOW COME Y0U TRUST NO ONE ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE A VETERAN ….SEMPER FI .
@Arnold Cabral – – – for a guy who just said this past week that he was not going to post on this website any more . . .
@Arnold
It is a rare day indeed when there is a shocking newscast, article, what have you, that does not exploit some blubbering/hyper-ventilating fool uttering the old saw “That was the last person I would have expected _______!!(fill as you wish)”.
Furthermore, if you are a veteran, were you absent on the day “TRUST NO ONE” was imparted in your training?
ROSIE as a Concerned Veteran you should Friend me on Facebook no worries i am married.
From “https://www.healthcareitnews.com/directory/veterans-affairs”
“https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/results-are-users-say-va-officials-should-keep-vista-ehr-not-sign-cerner”
Apple “https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/apple-reveals-39-hospitals-launch-apple-health-records”
Amazon “https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/5-ways-amazon-could-disrupt-healthcare”
“https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/cleveland-clinics-new-ceo-ai-analytics-and-digital-health-are-future”
You get the idea.
@Arnold
I won’t use social media.
Your marital status is of zero concern to me.
“https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/everybody-hates-vista-not-its-users”
“And to top it off, one package talks to another. VistA is not just an EHR. The entire IT system runs on VistA, from billing to clinical care. This allows the doctor to see all relevant patient information at once.”
Begging the question: How does the patient actually correct the human errored input that prevents “all relevant patient information” from being available at appointments, forcing the provider access to just the symptom only nonsense in the “problem list”?
Rosie, we can’t. I have a piece of paper and signed a contract months back to see a pain MD. The paper states something like inner office communications/reports/special notes/remarks or communications (between the VA to civilian clinics and beyond not worded in but included) may or may not be considered part of our medical files to be included in any request made for copies of our med files from that institution or MDs office. And not enforceable by HIPPA laws. Failure to abide by ‘their’ rules, per items of contract, or failing drug test would result in us, the patient, being sued by said MD and clinic. That and about twelve other pages in the contract had to be signed to get into the freaking clinic. I signed them “Vi Coactus” and (…), then called a “smart guy” for doing so, in not so happy of a cocky voice used by them.
A side note about FB. If I am left with having to go out into the streets alone to protest, then why should I worry about FB or social media doing nothing wrong???? I have stuck my head out to be chopped off publicly and forced to by any entity out there I have contacted for help only to have my files requested or demanded for any possible investigation… that never happened. ‘They’ won’t begin to help anyone playing the anonymity game what so ever. You have to tell people who you are and what problems you’re having … period. Even if I report to them about the VA and others scrubbing file information and communications between us, in the files, and online like with E-vet secure messages which turned out not to be so secure and open to scrubbing and tampering. So no big deal here. More fear or fear tactics to run me off from what is left out there to use in some small way? Nope. So what to do? Lay down, go silent and give up then wait to be shot or arrested for a protest? Or home to be swatted that would be covered-up in our lying media? Sheesh.
@T
Thanks for the info.
It is my understanding, the party does not/has not use(d) care outside of VHA.
While there exist laws to protect us from this sort of occurrence – – – the fact is that once the data is out there – – – you have zero expectation of privacy. As we all know, the United States Government and the private sector cannot keep your personal data safe.
This is observed behavior, not a feeling – – – as over the years we have all seen the data breaches at OPM, the VA, Equifax, and the list grows every single day. It would be great if all employees at every place this occurred had been taught to encrypt that data until such time as men are no longer capable of doing evil, but unfortunately – – – that ain’t the case.
I have had friends who have had their identity stolen, etc. Never a pretty sight to see. Best thing you can do is to learn some basic procedures about data security and follow them rigorously. Basic procedures such as how to use two-factor authentication. How to backup all your data locally. Hiw to encrypt your hard drives. Stuff like that.
Trust no one is theoretically a great policy for personal relationships, but when it comes to your data – proactive measures and verification procedures are required.