The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) controls the privacy and access of all protected health information (PHI) in the United States. One of the goals of the legislation is to help move the healthcare industry toward electronic health records (EHR). The value to patients and providers is faster and more accurate care, since clinicians, insurance companies and all related business organizations will have access to the same information.
In 2009, the US Congress passed the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act) to further clarify and address the privacy and security concerns associated with the electronic transmission of health information. Language in the law extends HIPAA provisions to business associates of covered entities. This means that any organization that works with a healthcare provider is also subjected to the same laws and penalties.
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On January 28, 2012, the United States, Canada and many other countries celebrated Data Privacy Day. This is a recognition that people, businesses and governments need to be aware of data privacy and how to protect it. Last October, the US government marked the eighth annual National Cyber Security Awareness Month sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security. That event helped educate people on the importance of internet security. The two events go hand in hand.
Data Privacy Day is an annual international celebration designed to promote awareness about privacy and education about best privacy practices. It began in the US and Canada in January 2008, as an extension of the Data Protection Day celebration that started in Europe in 2007. In the US, the House and Senate passed resolutions recognizing January 28 as National Data Privacy Day.
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The unofficial motto for Google is “Don’t be evil”. It’s written on its Code of Conduct page as part of its investor relations information.
Google has 7 simple areas in this code of conduct that cover serving its users, respecting employees, avoiding conflicts of interest, preserving confidentiality, protecting Google’s assets, ensuring financial integrity and obeying the law. If you read them, it sounds like the company intends not to be evil.
Google’s privacy policies and terms of service are what affect most of the users of its services and websites. On January 24, 2012, in an effort to simplify the somewhat arcane policies of numerous Google services, it issued notices to users of a pending change in its privacy policies.
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Here is a great video explaining why SOPA and PIPA may harm the open and free Internet and why it will ultimate hurt business. It also won’t stop those people actually stealing intellectual property and your valuable content.
The January 2012 issue of ENX Magazine features an article titled “Profiting by Helping Your Customers Get Through the Document & Data Security Noise” written by Dave Anastasi, CEO of eDocument Sciences.
In this article Dave looks at how companies need to focus on what their customers care about, not what they care about. As many others have said, customers don’t care about you and your products. They care about their business.
Helping them navigate through the challenging world of data and document security will benefit them tremendously. With the constant headlines of data breaches and breakdowns in company security, you owe it to your customers to help them survive the constant onslaught.
Click on the link below to read the article in its entirety.
Profiting by Helping Your Customers Get Through the Document & Data Security Noise
I grew up around the advertising business. My dad was an advertising executive who ran the creative departments for the two largest advertising agencies in New England. He won many awards and still today has a prestigious award named after him, even though he passed away over 25 years ago. He represented clients like John and Robert Kennedy, Wang, Lotus, John Hancock, Spaulding, Red Sox, Bruins and Celtics as well as many other organizations.
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