Madeline Coe
Pronouns: she/her
Research Mentor(s): Caroline Goray
Research Mentor School/College/Department: / Information
Program: UROPF
Session: Session 2 (10:00am – 10:50am)
Authors: Madeline Coe, Cami Goray
Abstract
The laws regarding “health information†in place today were put in place decades ago, and the quickly modernizing world has aged out of these regulations rendering them ineffective to protect the modern citizen. This information can range anywhere from information on a specific condition to the location data tracked by a phone, all of which can be dangerous when sold by app companies. Recently, there has been an effort to pay attention to holes in these regulations, as it is alarming when the average citizen falsely assumes that their private data is protected. Previous studies have started to uncover the loopholes in regulations, including what is classified as a “Medical Mobile App†(Scatterday, 2022) and a “covered entity†(Guadarrama, 2018). Thus, to make current observations about what people know about their own data privacy, a survey will be used to gather the opinions and consensus amongst the takers. In particular, this will provide evidence about the types of data that people believe are protected by law. Additionally, we will be able to track the demographics of the test-takers, tracking the thought-processes of different groups of people. This will then uncover the gaps of knowledge about their data privacy, specifically amongst their intimate health related data, which can be any piece of information that reveals the health of an individual (Miller, 2022). Hence, many people are at risk due to the minimal protections in place and the findings can be used to help cover those holes in the regulations, hopefully providing a more secure place both in the country and online.
