Nursing Informatics and "Big Brother"

In Daniel Solove's book Information-Age Privacy Concerns...(2004) he discusses Big Brother's infiltration into our society via the internet. Nothing is sacred anymore and everything is subject to public access. How is this going to effect patient privacy in a healthcare setting? Everyone that works within the healthcare arena makes special, explicit effort to guard patient privacy. If spyware can infiltrate home computers, business computer systems, and even government systems, at what point will our patient's and even our own private information become public knowledge.

Businesses use these techniques for marketing strategies. Even Wal-Mart now has tracking devices on their packaging which can determine where a particular item is being taken (i.e. TVs, CDs, etc.) Traffic lights have cameras so an eye is always watching to ticket those speeders who think they are getting away with something. Would it not be feasible that drug companies, medical supplies manufacturers, etc. would not want to know medical information about the patients that are utilizing their products? But what about when the time comes that insurance companies are wanting this information? The public's secrets will be a thing of the past. That could prove to be both good and bad. These are really scary thoughts. Who is going to spy on the spys? If we all have secrets that we would prefer to be kept that way, I'm sure they do to.

dd