fears regarding the security of our data

The progress, the advances and the innovations in the medical field push us to see a clear improvement in the care of the patients, in the remedies which can be proposed to them, but also in their daily follow-ups. When on the one hand the balance is in favor, the cons also weighs heavily on the question of the protection of the data collected by its systems: are big health data safe? And where do you fit into all this? What are your rights ?

smart health connected health: undeniable advantages

We talk to you about this very regularly, technology makes it possible to make real miracles such as making or paralyzing paralyzed people using exoskeletons or other increasingly crazy means. In addition, this market is growing every day a little more exponentially. Researchers, scientists, engineers and solution designers are always doing more to try to meet all expectations.

Whether in patient care, in new rooms developed and furnished to benefit everyone, or even in the treatment of their ailments, technology and smart health connected objects are everywhere.

The problem is that by taking care of all the data concerning health, physical activity, and many other information, the importance of this data becomes undeniable.

Projects are emerging every day around the world, and it is sometimes difficult to detect real usefulness for some.

Advantages of course, but at what cost?

To find a compromise between need and trust, designers must always review their approaches. The collection of personal and especially health data is starting to raise real questions for consumers and patients. Indeed, the latter are beginning to understand the vital importance of traces and data that they leave lying around on the web or on apps.

Let's not forget that today anyone can access everything, and the problem is there. Digital is not tangible, but very good at hacking and the illegal use of data. But besides, what are our rights on this subject?

The Data Protection Act: key principles of the protection of personal data

The National Data Protection Commission is clear on this subject. First of all, before any data collection by a company, an institution or any other organization, the data controller of this organization must define the objects of the data collection, i.e. the purpose and goals of this one. Thus, these purposes must respect the rights and freedoms of each individual, who themselves must be informed of the collection. In addition to being notified in the event of collection of data concerning an individual, this individual may also have access to its data, to see what they contain, correct as needed, or can even to oppose to their uses if he thinks they are not legitimate or completely false.

The data subject in reality has several rights: the right of access to data collected on himself, the right to correct them, the right to oppose them, or the right to dereference.

But that's not all. Any data cannot be collected without real data relevance with its purpose. Thus, the data controller can only collect data which he will use, and pay attention to the character "sensitive" certain data, as in our case, where health data is strictly personal and reserved for a very specific use.

In addition, its data cannot be kept indefinitely. There must be a retention date : once the utility is completed, they should be deleted.

Finally, this last point is the one that interests us: data absolutely must be secure. The data controller of the organization must take all the necessary measures to guarantee the security of this data, to ensure that each previous principle has been respected, but also so that his data remain confidential and that they are not sold to other organizations. The rules around security vary as to the sensitivity of the data and the purpose of the processing.

In our case, personal data in the health and medical world are considered as sensitive data, and cannot, or rather should never be resold to other organisms, or undergo a use other than for what they were collected.

Is the security of our health data guaranteed?

Ransomware is software that takes into account "hostage" personal data by hacking them. More and more sophisticated, sophisticated and above all more and more aggressive, they start to rage in the hospital world.

For example, the SamSam ransomware recently blocked Med Star Health, an organization that manages data collected from a dozen hospitals in Maryland and Washington state in the United States. The hackers behind this hold up asked for a ransom 45 bitcoins, or almost 17,000 euros. A nice little booty.

This is a testament to the insecurity in which we put our personal and medical data. Fallen in the wrong hands, we do not really know what could happen, because beyond the problem of ransoms, gravity is placed in misuse of its data, its disclosures, their resales or even worse, their modifications.