Slashdot Mirror
UK Health Clinic Accidentally Publishes HIV Status of 800 Patients
An anonymous reader writes: A sexual health clinic in London accidentally disclosed the HIV positive status of almost 800 patients. The Guardian reports: "The health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has ordered an inquiry into how the NHS handles confidential medical information after the “completely unacceptable” breach of the privacy of hundreds of HIV patients. The 56 Dean Street clinic in London apologized on Wednesday after sending a newsletter on Tuesday which disclosed the names and email addresses of about 780 recipients. The newsletter is intended for people using its HIV and other sexual health services, and gives details of treatments and support.
As I understand it, this was your usual failure to use blind copy (BCC) when sending a bulk email. The HIV status of people was not divulged, only the email addresses of other recipients (not sure if this included the recipient account names as well as the address). The recipients were people who had used the clinic for some services.
--- To save space, would readers please insert their own witty comment -here-
No, graphists are not better than other people at their job.
A web developer still makes better web sites than a graphist.
And a doctor still knows better when to shut up about medical details than a graphist.
And no, people in general don't like newsletters (even when they DON'T divulge private details to other recipients).
So, please get back to your pretty pictures, and let us do OUR jobs.
So what seems to have happened is that someone, some admin guy, was asked to send out the HIV Monthly newsletter by email. Does just that but in such a way all email addresses were visible. Now, probably like a lot of people, I also receive emailed newsletters and similar. Occasionally they also have all other recipients email addresses exposed. So my thoughts are whether this is a general issue that affects all mass email or is it something specific to this clinic? Receipt of a newsletter from an HIV clinic does not necessarily mean you have HIV. My guess is a lot of recipients will be trustees, bureaucrats and various others. Also, is an email address personal information? Certainly some people will have their name in their address but for many those email addresses are already on twitter, facebook and various other locations. So this particular case seems like a storm in a tea cup, but it also suggests there might be a general issue in the way mass email is sent that needs some thought.
What the fuck is a graphist?
I don't understand why this information should be kept private. HIV is highly communicable under certain circumstances. Having a registry of people infected with HIV would allow people to avoid the type of contact that can spread HIV with infected persons. It would also allow people to identify if they may have contracted HIV because they had sexual relations with someone who has HIV. This might allow those people to receive treatment earlier and prevent them from further spreading HIV. If there's a disease that has no cure at present and is highly contagious under certain conditions, don't people have a right to know who's infected so they can do what's necessary to avoid contracting that disease? I'm all for privacy of medical records when you're not putting people at risk of contracting a dangerous and currently incurable disease. But in this instance, there's a strong public safety interest that these records shouldn't be private anyway.
Standard issue baby boomer reluctance to use computers properly.
"Why would we buy a tool to send bulk email when the intern can do it for peanuts?"
This is why, executives. This is why you need to use the correct tools. Just do a mail merge. It is unbelievably simple. So simple that the intern could do it.
We don't need any privacy right? Unless they are terrorists they have nothing to hide.
Someone the OP has a personal issue with, I assume.
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
Take out CC: in mails and only allow BCC:
I seriously hate it when my friends send a mail to me with some other people and my email address is not hand-delivered to the virus and spam-harvester infested horrors of my other friends. If ALL emails only went out by BCC this would not happen.
Mail server maintainers such as Postfix/Exim and such should band together and simply phase out CC and start treating the CC header as a BCC header. And then should begin rejecting mails with a CC with multiple email addresses in it outright. This would solve half of the world's spam problems in a few years too.
The dangers of excessive individualism are nothing compared to the oppressiveness of excessive collectivism
Rest assured, if you should ever contract it, I'll be personally doing my best to take out double page ads in the Sun to announce it to the world.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Is that a word? I thought a clinic is always a health care institution.
They were also listed in the Ashley Madison database.
I have seen some mail systems where BCC is not possible.
Idk probably pissed off an exec when the found out the board was Blind CC'ed in that embarrassing email exchange.
Also BCC could have even been removed as an attempt to protect privacy.
That all the patients' details were in an address book mystifies me. I wonder if their addresses were in the same file, and what else? These things are bound to happen given the pressures and distractions of modern life. More precautions are needed where harm may result.
The Do Not Fuck List.
Now everyone knows whose fluids to avoid. How terrible! They should have to tattoo is on their heads if they're found positive. That would stop AIDS in one generation.
How long until these get cross-checked with the Ashley Madison hacked records? Data is fun!