Evaluating the Privacy of Covid-19 At-Home Tests

Kaylana Mueller-Hsia discuss home tests for COVID-19 and their privacy protections — or lack thereof:

Like so much else about the Covid-19 response, how well test providers handle the sensitive health data of their customers will impact Americans’ trust in this tool and thus its usefulness. Federal law does play a role through the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). While this law provides some privacy protections for identifiable health information, there may be gaps in its applicability to at-home test kit providers.

Test providers must therefore take the lead in instituting adequate, transparent privacy safeguards. But they often fail to do so. Some do not even publish a privacy policy online, while others retain data for unspecified amounts of time or share personal information with third party vendors for targeted advertising.

Read more on Brennan Center.

h/t, Joe Cadillic