Firms may violate workers’ medical privacy with big data

It may be time to take a step back and re-evaluate how U.S. companies are using big data gathered in employee wellness and other health care analytics programs.

… In an editorial posted Tuesday in JAMA Internal Medicine, some Texas researchers argue that use of big data to predict the “risk” of a woman getting pregnant may be crossing a line. It could exacerbate long-standing patterns of employment discrimination and paint pregnancy as something to be discouraged.

… The concern arose after reports of how one health care analytics company launched a product that can track, for example, if a woman has stopped filling birth-control prescriptions or has searched for fertility information on the company’s app. And women may not even be aware that such data is being collected.

Reference: Firms may violate workers’ medical privacy with big data