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Northeastern cancels vaccination clinics after provider exposes patient info on its Web site
By adamg on Fri, 12/10/2021 - 4:46pm
Yesterday, as it was announcing that students and staff had to get booster shots by next month, Northeastern University was canceling a two-day on-campus vaccination clinic next week after information from people signing up somehow wound up on the provider's Web site.
The information that was temporarily available on the site does not include social security numbers or medical or financial information, and is limited to what you have submitted, including name, date of birth and address and any health insurance information. At this time, it is not known if your data was improperly accessed or viewed by anyone outside of Pelmeds or Northeastern. We are working with Pelmeds to understand more about the extent of the incident, and will share additional information as soon as it becomes available.
The university added that anybody who had signed up should now find someplace else to get a shot.
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Comments
Isn't it good that everyone
Isn't it good that everyone knows you are vaccinated?
To say nothing of the fact that the information already leaked. Why not boost these known people?
HIPPA Laws
.
It’s HIPAA. Not HIPPA
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
Because some people might use
Because some people might use that info for harassment or worse.
And they can
As Notfrom said, the information was already exposed. If NU goes through with the vaccination, the information doesn't get more exposed. Not vaccinating those students does not protect their info.
I’m pretty confident they
I’m pretty confident they fired the contractor shortly after the data leak was discovered. It will take time for NU to find a new provider to contract with.
Did you bother to read what was exposed?
Whether or not I want people to know my vaccination status (which is a personal decision), I definitely don't want strangers or local creeps to know my date of birth and address and any health insurance information.
Where if at all do you work
Where if at all do you work that vaccination is a personal decision for you?
My guess is
they do not want their name address and vaccination status blasted across the internet for anti-vaxx trolls to have access to.
You don't need Qanon showing up on your lawn trying to cleanse the world of lizard people. Some of those people are armed and very dangerous.
Slightly ambiguous
Slightly ambiguous, but I believe the personal decision to which mg was referring was publicly releasing information about one’s vaccination status.
Exactly
Thank you, @Bob Leponge. I happen to be very pro-vaccination, as someone who works in medical research, am fully vaxxed and will be boosted as soon as I can after I'm over my current non-covid virus. But it's my decision whether to tell anyone other than my employer my status.
Meanwhile, the rest of what was disclosed is definitely no one else's business and could cause serious problems for people, especially if someone is already being harassed and the harasser now knows their address.
I’m not following your argument
It sounds like you’re arguing that immediately firing the contractor who recklessly exposed peoples private data, was not the right thing to do? And that the contractor should have been allowed to continue to have further access to patients and patient data?
Now my own family isn't
Now my own family isn't talking to me because I didn't go to their house on Thanksgiving because none of them are vaxed. This Covid has me beyond depressed. I'm trying to do the right thing to take care of myself by already having all 3 shots, wearing mask, and I'm the bad guy..
Curious
Were you worried about infecting them, them infecting you, or just avoiding them to make a [reasonable] point?
I don't think you're a bad guy unless you also run the data provider that Northeastern had a contract with.
Out of a, b, and c that u ask
Out of a, b, and c that u ask, my answer is b and c. Not -a- because I am not afraid of infecting them. I'd rather commune with the vaxed like myself.
You have to do what's right for you
My parents consume a steady diet of right wing media, but thank God they've gotten their vaccinations. I don't know what I would do if I had a family of anti-vaxxers. I am horrified at the news reports from other parts of the country. You have my condolences. Good luck with the remaining holidays.
Basically no excuse for this
Speaking as a software developer, there are *very few circumstances* I can imagine where this kind of breach is not the result of incompetence or gross negligence either at the developer or management level.