From: Phil Fraering <pgf@acadian.net>
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 1996 17:22:06 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Medical Data
In-Reply-To: <ae6eb49d0302100488aa@[207.167.93.63]>
Message-ID: <Pine.SOL.3.93.960925234137.22278E-100000@stiletto.acadian.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


You're absolutely correct about the informed patient bit;  I have
developed the policy of checking the PDR entry for any medication I take. 
And found out about some interactions my doctor didn't tell me about.

There's a paradox about Andy Grove's situation: if he starts browsing
medical databases and someone can analyze his traffic, or scans his
traffic on a closed but not encrypted private email support group, they
can deduce much about his condition. Now since everyone else knows about
Grove's situation anyway (I suppose he talked about it) and it was brought
up regarding my comments about pharmaceutical interactions (and in those
comments I was acting reflexively towards a phobia about medical
interactions) it's a moot point concerning the medical side and his
privacy information; but the privacy angle still needs to be considered in
the general case:

In order for someone to do this in complete privacy, encryption would have
to be ubiquitous; the norm, rather than the exception it is now.

There aren't records of who looks up something in the PDR at your local
library, but an ISP could gather much info about its users from what sites
they frequent...

Phil Fraering          The above is the opinion of neither my internet
pgf@acadian.net        service provider nor my employer.
318/261-9649