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Data Broker Medbase200 Sold Lists of Rape & Domestic Violence Victims
McGruber writes "During her testimony (PDF) at a Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing Wednesday about the data-broker industry, Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum, revealed that the Medbase200 unit of Integrated Business Services Incorporated had been offering a list of 'rape sufferers' on its website, at a cost of $79 for 1,000 names. The company, which sells marketing information to pharmaceutical companies, also offered lists of domestic violence victims, HIV/AIDS patients, and 'peer pressure sufferers.' In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Integrated Business Services Incorporated President Sam Tartamella initially denied that his company maintained or sold databases of rape victims. After the Journal provided him a link to the 'rape sufferers' page, he said he would remove it from Medbase200's website and denied ever having sold such a list. The page was removed later Wednesday."
There is no need for information which identifies specific individuals when determining the effectiveness of a drug or medical procedure in a large group of people.
Not always.
On the most basic level, you want to distinguish male from female. There are some drugs and diseases that have a different course in men than women, so you want to go back and see whether that's the case in a particular study.
There are some genes that are more common in black caribbean populations, that affect the metabolism of opioids. So a normal dose of codeine for a cough might be fatal for a black caribbean person. So you want to know in the study how many people were black (and preferably of caribbean origin).
You want to know who's a smoker and who's a non-smoker.
This is particularly an issue when you have one study that says a treatment worked, another study that says it didn't work, and you want to go back and figure out why they're coming to different conclusions.