Up for sale: consumer medical information

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to examine privacy breaches in personal health record information that expose consumers to unsolicited marketing.

Design/methodology/approach

Examples of: data theft by healthcare workers; sale of consumer health data by entities not covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA); and piracy of health data through sophisticated internet targeted marketing.

Findings

This paper finds that HIPAA's strict safeguards to medical privacy are not extended to database companies that aggregate data for electronic medical records, a source of highly profitable information that is purchased by advertisers. Similar health information is obtained by marketers through consumer “health surveys” completed on web‐based health information sites or at community health screenings.

Practical implications

Consumer education is warranted to ensure awareness of privacy breaches and vigilance against loss of personal and protected health information to marketers.

Originality/value

The paper highlights the areas for protecting consumers via identifying loopholes in HIPAA, as well as pointing out consumer behavior that can lead to subtle, yet systematic exploitation of their health information for profit via marketing.

Citation

Levy, M. and Royne, M.B. (2009), "Up for sale: consumer medical information", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 26 No. 7, pp. 465-467. https://doi.org/10.1108/07363760911001510