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posted by martyb on Friday July 20 2018, @09:24PM   Printer-friendly
from the All-your-Health-data-are-belong-to-us-dept dept.

The Australian government online medical health record system is failing due to the number of people trying to opt out. The MyHealthRecord was introduced to store patients health records online so multiple doctors can access them. Many privacy and IT security advocates have warned that this type of system can be compromised. For most people it does not provide a great benefit. A key criticism is that users can't delete data only a provider can mark data as being hidden, and data is never actually deleted. With the Australian government throwing millions at this system to try to make it relevant this opt out may put a nail in its coffin. The government plans to sell data from this system to third parties, a fact which has not endeared it to the public with the recent government data breaches and census fiasco. People in Australia are voting with their feet to not be a part of it before it evens starts which says a lot about how people in Australia value their privacy.


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  • (Score: 2) by jb on Saturday July 21 2018, @06:07AM (2 children)

    by jb (338) on Saturday July 21 2018, @06:07AM (#710294)

    To opt out of this you have to provide a Federal Government ID (Medicare #) with a State Government ID (Drivers License #).

    That's only true if you opt-out online.

    The far better method is opt-out by telephone. Then they only require your Medicare card number and your full name (which they've had on file since Medibank [what's now called Medicare] started way back in the '70s).

    Plus, when opting out by telephone it is possible (although not offered, you have to demand it) to get the confirmation of opt-out receipt sent to your postal address (which Medicare already have on file), instead of the default options of SMS or email (yet more data points that should not be linked).

    It's worth noting that on Monday (day one of the 3 month opt-out period), hold-times when calling the opt-out line were 2.5+ hours ... but by Tuesday morning hold-times were down to seconds.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 21 2018, @09:49AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 21 2018, @09:49AM (#710334)

    You don't need to get the confirmation sent to you. Just ask for it and they will read it out.
    I asked when I opted out how the data is being stored. It sounds like they are remoting to the medicare system to verify identity. The flag for opt out sounds like it is being stored in the medicare side.
    I asked what data the digital health dept is storing and the guy said 'none'.
    I would like to see stats on how much traffic there was on the first day

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 21 2018, @06:50PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 21 2018, @06:50PM (#710536)

      You don't need to get the confirmation sent to you. Just ask for it and they will read it out.

      I think you've missed the point of requesting a paper confirmation, especially one which has a postal mark on the envelope,

      I asked when I opted out how the data is being stored. It sounds like they are remoting to the medicare system to verify identity. The flag for opt out sounds like it is being stored in the medicare side.
      I asked what data the digital health dept is storing and the guy said 'none'.
      I would like to see stats on how much traffic there was on the first day

      So, you're willing to take the word of a drone-onna-phone? fine, the person you've responded to doesn't and wants a bit of paper, so that when the almost inevitable day comes round where he gets a call and the voice on the other end says 'mate, that data you said we weren't to share about you?, seems it wasn't removed and it's been shared.'
      He has, as proof that he opted out, a bit of paper..
      You?