Abstract from the article titled, "Before Using Birth Control Apps Consider Your Privacy" posted on Wired.com: "Natural Cycles’ privacy policy states that in using the app each user grants the company and any of its partners broad rights to “use, reproduce, distribute, modify, adapt, prepare derivative works of, publicly display, publicly perform, communicate to the public, and otherwise utilize and exploit a user's anonymized information.”

The internet has made DNA testing a big global business. In the United States and Europe, millions of people have sent samples of their saliva to commercial labs in the hopes of learning something new about their personal health or lineage. Ancestry.com, 23andMe, MyHeritage, and FamilyTreeDNA are all industry leaders that sell their services online, share test results on websites, and even provide guides on how to find relatives in phone directories or share results on social media. They frequently claim ownership of your genetic information and sell access to their databases to large pharmaceutical and medical technology firms.

An article posted in the Journal of the American Medical Association identified that some of the highest-ranking health apps used to assist people with mental health conditions (e.g. depression) and smoking cessation were sharing data with Facebook and Google services and that only a third disclosed such practices.

This is based on an article from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). CISA is the Nation’s risk advisor, working with partners to defend against today’s threats and collaborating to build a more secure and resilient infrastructure for the future. CISA provides extensive cybersecurity and infrastructure security knowledge which can assist people in applying better personal health information risk management. 

In this article, CISA explains risks associated with mobile device apps and some preventive methods that can be used to better secure your personal information.

From the HHS Office for Civil Rights website: Ask your doctor. You have the right to see and get copies of your health information - PDF. In most cases, you can get a copy the way you want it, such as by e-mail. While your doctor normally has up to 30 days to provide you a copy of your information, your doctor often can provide the information much sooner than that. If your doctor offers a web portal, you may be able to easily view and download your health information whenever you want.

As Hurricane Florence makes landfall, the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and its federal partners remain in close coordination to help ensure that emergency officials effectively address the needs of at-risk populations as part of disaster response. If you believe that a person or organization covered by the Privacy and Security Rules (a "covered entity") violated your health information privacy rights or otherwise violated the Privacy or Security Rules, you may file a complaint with OCR. For additional information about how to file a complaint, visit OCR's web page on filing complaints at http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/complaints/index.html.

SUBJECTIVE: This article published in Wired magazine discusses the long tail of privacy considerations that we need to think through when installing and giving permissions to apps on our smartphones, computers, and other internet connected devices. It brings to light the many different ways in which seemingly innocent functionalities that you turn on in apps can gather a lot of information that is often unknown to the user.

Abstract from the Bllomberg article: "Your genetic code includes details about not only your own health and family, but also similarly intimate information about your relatives. When police recently used a genetic genealogy website to find a suspect in the case of the Golden State Killer, it illuminated the unexpected ways that your genetic data can be used by people you had no idea you were sharing it with."

In the article titled, "Can Patients Make Recordings of Medical Encounters?" from the JAMA Network authors Elwyn, Barr, and Castaldo discuss some of the broader legalities of making a recording while visiting your doctor.

Making a recording that you can add to your personal health record can be a great way of maintaining documentation and accountability for your care, as well as assist you and your family in remembering instructions given to you by your care provider.

Understanding the legalities can help ensure this is a positive experience for both you and your doctor and will allow you to make recordings that are admissible in court if needed.

This service from Pro Publica allows a person to search and find out whether your hospital, clinic, pharmacy or health insurer has been named in patient privacy complaints, breaches or violations. This tool includes data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (which enforces HIPAA), the California Department of Public Health (which enforces California’s medical privacy laws) and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (which tracks privacy violations at its vast network of veterans hospitals and clinics).

SUBJECTIVE: In an article reported by CNBC's Christina Farr it is reported that, "Facebook has asked several major U.S. hospitals to share anonymized data about their patients, such as illnesses and prescription info, for a proposed research project. Facebook was intending to match it up with user data it had collected, and help the hospitals figure out which patients might need special care or treatment." 

The MyFitnessPal fitness app has reported that approximately 150 million accounts a part of their nutrition tracker were breached in February 2018. It is reported that an authorized user hacked into the MyFitnessPal database system and stole user data.

This 2-page ONC published graphic novel (aka comic book) is a short guide that helps illustrate why protecting your health privacy is important and issues to consider when sharing sensitive health information.

From the NIH YouTube Channel: Do you know what information is contained in your electronic health record (EHR)? Eric Dishman, director of the All of Us Research Program, explains what’s in your EHR and why the data is so valuable for researchers.

This article from the Engadget web magazine discusses how your online searching behaviors might be monitored by different companies that you are unaware about. This data is likely used to build profiles that may impact the advertisements you see, credit ratings received, and other potential social network aspects as of yet identified. 

One consideration as you gather and store more personal health information on your computer and devices is making sure that you are not inadvertently sharing this information (or some other aspect of your personal health) through your webcam or mic.

This article from Zapier outlines several different ways and some handy applications that can help you control this on your PC or MAC.

In this article written by Brian X. Chen from the New York Times he discusses some of the potential ways in which mobile apps that you download to your phone may be collecting and using your personal data in ways you did not know.

One of the key takeaways is that there are ways in which to protect yourself and tools that can help you figure out which apps are collecting your data and how to remove their ability to do so.