From the Office of Civil Rights YouTube page: Watch this video to learn about the HIPAA Privacy Rule, a law that protects patients' rights and health information rights. For more information please visit http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/.

Whether health information is stored on paper or electronically, patients have the right to keep it private. They also have the right to get a copy of their records, to request to make a change to those records, and to know how that information is used and shared.

The increasing concerns over online privacy, particularly for consumer health data, are being addressed by key agencies like the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). However, there remains a significant gap in protecting the privacy of individuals seeking online services for drug use, substance use disorder (SUD) treatment, or recovery.

In an increasingly digitized healthcare landscape, the protection of reproductive privacy has emerged as a pressing concern. Patients frequently encounter medical technology interfaces that may ambiguously request data-sharing consents, like the one provided by Phreesia as outlined in the STAT article by Alex R. Rosenblat. Though seemingly benign, these consents can lead to unintended sharing of sensitive personal and medical information with third-party advertisers. Such practices can jeopardize patient trust, potentially expose them to undue harm, and create an undue burden on them to safeguard their privacy. This concern is exacerbated when healthcare providers and tech companies appear more vested in advertising revenue than in upholding stringent data privacy standards. Given the inherent vulnerabilities and power imbalances patients face when seeking medical care, there is a growing imperative for robust policy interventions, ethical business conduct, and heightened patient education to ensure that reproductive privacy isn't compromised.