Posted by Michael Wonder on 30 Mar 2018
Guilty: Health Department breached privacy laws publishing data of 2.5 million people
29 March 2018 - The federal Department of Health "unintentionally" breached privacy laws when it published de-identified health records of 2.5 million people online, Australia's Privacy Commissioner has ruled.
About 1½ years ago, the department published de-identified health data of 10% of the population from the MBS and the PBS on the government's open data website for "research purposes".
A month later, researchers at the University of Melbourne sounded the alarm that the data could be re-identified, saying they had pinpointed unique patient records matching seven well-known Australians, including three former or current MPs and an AFL footballer.
