[LINK] Your Medicare records online

[Ivan Trundle]

On 03/03/2010, at 10:39 AM, Stephen Wilson wrote:

> Ivan Trundle wrote:
>> Social behaviours are not always thwarted by the imposition of laws....
>> For anyone to suggest what 'the real issue is' only convinces me
>> that it is not, or that it demands deeper examination.
> 
> That's a fair point in the general, but in my defence, I was trying to 
> stress that what matters most in this particular case is that staff were 
> breaking the law by peeking at records.  Judging by the way Ivan you 
> prefaced your response to Juanita with "perhaps" [the Medicare breach is 
> scary], I thought that your examination of the reasons for curiosity was 
> deflecting from the fact that privacy laws were broken.

My concern was the way in which it was described: for the privacy commissioner to use the words 'potential breaches' is disingenuous. For the reporter to suggest that it was 'only the beginning' is laughable.

That aside, I used 'perhaps' because, unlike Kim's assertion, I don't view 'potential privacy breaches' as being 'very scary'. I am usually scared by things which cause me to palpitate and sweat, not by 'potential' lax implementation of privacy controls.

The report was even more puzzling to me since it declares that the number of cases is getting smaller, so why all the hyperbole?

Warmly

iT