The Biden White House took a step towards shoring up among the privateness points which were raised following the Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade. In a brand new government order addressing abortion entry and different points, the White House steered that it’s attempting to extend privateness protections for individuals looking for reproductive healthcare, although it’s not clear what insurance policies could change on account of the motion.
The order factors to “the potential threat to patient privacy caused by the transfer and sale of sensitive health-related data and by digital surveillance.” And it gives some steering to different businesses, just like the FTC, although it stops wanting proposing new rules.
Instead, the order appears to depart a lot on the discretion of the FTC and the Department of Health and Human Services. For instance, it says the chair of the FTC is “is encouraged to consider actions … to protect consumers’ privacy when seeking information about and provision of reproductive healthcare services.” It additionally states that the Attorney General and the Secretary of Health and Human Services ought to “consider actions to educate consumers on how best to protect their health privacy and limit the collection and sharing of their sensitive health-related information.”
Biden’s government order comes after privateness advocates and activists have warned that the shortage of federal privateness rules may have dire penalties for individuals looking for abortions post-Roe. Period monitoring apps have gotten outsize consideration, however consultants say the difficulty runs far deeper than only one sort of app. And whereas the manager order doesn’t contact on points like knowledge brokers or the huge assortment of non-public info by tech firms, the difficulty has gotten the eye of Congress. On the identical day as Biden’s government order, a bunch of Democrats from the House Oversight Committee launched an investigation into 5 knowledge brokers and the businesses behind 5 well-liked cycle monitoring apps.