Mick Veerkamp

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Last year, Arjen Lubach (a Dutch TV-host) showed the dangers of all data we ignorantly share on Facebook. In this broadcast of his late night show ‘Zondag met Lubach’, he demonstrated some examples of things that people are not aware of when they use Facebook (NOS.nl, 2018). His explanation of the way Facebook uses personal data to create personalized content made thousands of Dutch people delete his or her Facebook-account. Although I think Facebook is too valuable for me to delete it for privacy reasons, his broadcast definitely changed the way I think about sharing things on Facebook.

My increased attention for privacy innovations and developments made me read an article about a new privacy tool Facebook has included in its interface. In general, Facebook-users are aware of the way the earlier mentioned personalized content is created. Still, the majority of users is surprised by the fact that also third-party companies get access to private information (Condliffe, 2019). To enable people to see what information is shared with which companies, Facebook recently introduced ‘Off-Facebook Activity’. This tool mainly focuses on the information people share with other applications or websites, using a ‘Login with Facebook’. By doing this, people allow applications to use personal information, even when they are not using Facebook. This is something, most of the Facebook-users do not know (Isaac, 2019). The new tools shows insight in which data is shared, and enables users to switch on or off specified information. This results in a more secure feeling for users, and results in an increasing feeling of security.

In my opinion, the main reason for Facebook to finally come up with a tool like this is the increasing pressure on online companies. In 2018, Facebook experienced, for the first time in its existence, a reduction in the number of users (Jagannathan, 2019). As the company realized that privacy issues are one of the main factors that lead to this trend, the company felt like it had to come up with a solution for people’s doubts.

Although I think the Off-Facebook Activity tool is revolutionizing the way personal data is shared, because it enables people to keep tracking their personal information, it still can not be seen as the solution for the major problem of data insecurity. Even though it is the first tool to let people actively have insight in their information, there still is too much uncertainty concerning private data. However, I am hoping that other companies will follow the example of Facebook, so that everyone’s online security will improve, and Arjen Lubach’s call to make us all delete our Facebook accounts will end up to be redundant.

References:

Condliffe, J. (2019, August 23). The Week in Tech: Facebook’s First Step Toward Treating Our Data Better. New York Times. Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/23/technology/big-tech-data.html

Isaac, M. (2019, August 20). Facebook’s New Tool Lets You See Which Apps and Websites Tracked You. New York Times. Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/20/technology/facebook-tool-privacy-apps-websites.html?module=inline

Jagannathan, M. (2019, March 7). Why did Facebook lose an estimated 15 million users in the past two years? Marketwatch. Retrieved from: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-did-facebook-lose-an-estimated-15-million-users-in-the-past-two-years-2019-03-07

NOS.nl. (2018, April 10). Delete Facebook-oproep van Arjen Lubach gaat internationaal. NOS.nl. Retrieved from: https://nos.nl/artikel/2226575-delete-facebook-oproep-van-arjen-lubach-gaat-internationaal.html

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After having had long holidays, I was up to my annual, all comprehending medical check. With the information gathered in the first week of college in my head, I quickly realized that the insights of me as a person were already in the doctor’s hands. Due to my newborn curiosity, I asked him: “Doc, can you actually tell me how you doctors share and analyze all that information?”. As he stumbled upon some hesitations and laughed, he answered that I would be amazed if I knew how much information ‘they’ have. And after my online research, I indeed am amazed.

An Electronic Health Record can be described as the passport of any person, but it doesn’t only cover date of birth, nationality, etc. Moreover, it also features (previous) physical and mental problems, prescriptions, medications, visits, and all other medical related actions a person has experienced in his or her life (Hicks, 2019). The difference with modern EHR’s compared to traditional EHR’s lies within its pro-active way of processing information and the way personal EHR’s are being used to improve the medical world (Lebied, 2018). After all, even your personal information contributes to an ongoing development (Colicchio, Cimino, Del Fiol, 2019).

One of the most common technologies being used in healthcare is ‘health tracking’. Mobile apps, watches, sensors and other devices actively send data to EHR systems (Saratchandran, 2019). Despite of what most people think, even (e.g.) Apple’s Smartwatch is being used to collect medical information (Colicchio, Cimino, Del Fiol, 2019). People’s personal information ends online on a global scale, while most of us aren’t aware of it. A reduction of costs is another effect of big data widely being used. By processing personal information and making predictions based on that, personal EHR’s can support hospitals in hiring not too few, but also not too many employees. Also, forecasts and predictions reduce human errors, which in the U.S. only costed $210.7 million dollars last year (Saratchandran, 2019.

Although the above advantages of data in the healthcare industry seem to be beneficial for all of us, they made me starting to think whether we still have any personal information left for ourselves. As I thought that all conversations with my personal doctor were in private, the things being discussed nowadays ‘vanish’ in the online world of the healthcare industry. In my opinion, it is good that we can all contribute to a better healthcare industry by unconsciously sharing personal information. But in the modern online world, where privacy is increasingly in danger, possible negative effects of sharing information should be addressed to everyone, so that each one of us can decide how he or she wants to contribute to this.

Literarure:

Cimino, J., Colicchio, T, Del Fiol, G. 2019, June 3. Unintended Consequences of Nationwide Electronic Health Record Adoption: Challenges and Opportunities in the Post-Meaningful Use Era. Journal of medical internet research. Retrieved from: https://www.jmir.org/2019/6/e13313/

Hicks, J. 2019, September 3. 6 Terms Related to the Electronic Health Record. Retrieved from: https://www.verywellhealth.com/terms-related-to-electronic-health-record-2317141

Lebied, M. 2018, July 18. 12 Examples of Big Data Analytics In Healthcare That Can Save People. Retrieved from: https://www.datapine.com/blog/big-data-examples-in-healthcare/

Saratchandran, V. 2019, January 9. 5 Ways Big Data is Changing the Healthcare Industry. Retrieved from: https://www.fingent.com/blog/5-ways-big-data-is-changing-the-healthcare-industry

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