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TTC 2003  Data Privacy and its Impact on Implementing Cross-border Healthcare in the EU and Beyond
The dawn of the modern age of digital telecommunications has brought with it a major assault on data security in private life, business, and government – indeed on all walks of life in the civilized world. The problem of security of information is not new, indeed it is as old as history itself, but with application of information society technology (IST) to almost all aspects of everyday life, the threats to personal privacy have augmented considerably as the net has widened to include people of all walks of life. In the field of healthcare, one of the many facets of introducing IST is the facilitation of transporting data from one place to another, which carries with it many complexities and problems that are exacerbated when the data are of a private nature (such as personal health data) and must cross international borders (encountering different legal systems).
The backside of facilitating the ubiquity of personal data is the real or perceived threat to personal privacy and rights of the citizen. The average citizen has always been quite in the dark as to what personal data is indeed recorded and to whom it is made available; with the exponential increase in the spread of personal data in the advanced digitised world, and the ubiquitous media to carry it everywhere, such as the Internet and myriad intra-networks, the citizen has cause, or should have cause, to fear the onslaught to his personal privacy. In order to protect the privacy of the citizen’s personal data and to standardize these rights across the EU, the EC issued Directive 95-46 with detailed guidelines for the implementation of national laws on data protection in all member states. In summary, this directive and associated regulations seek to protect the privacy of data of the individual, especially in an age of advanced telecommunications, massive databases and the ubiquity of the Internet. However, there is a gulf between the existence of a set of laws and real practical protection for the citizen. Thus the worthy goal of facilitating the provision of cross-border healthcare across Europe carries with it the increased threat to privacy accompanying the widened domain of accessibility to sensitive data. As is well understood by experts and laymen, the extent of security and guarantee of privacy provided is no stronger than the weakest link in the chain of security across the entire domain. If only one responsible organisation in one member state is not sufficiently vigilant, the security of all data could well be compromised. All this leaves the citizen and his rights and the realization of efficient and effective cross-border healthcare in a somewhat uncomfortable and uncertain state. There are many questions unanswered regarding the citizen’s rights of access to data, control of, and consent to, access to personal data and guarantees to security of that data. Indeed the costs and practicalities of creating and controlling the necessary infrastructure have not yet been realistically assessed. These problems and dilemmas encountered, especially in the area of data privacy, during the transition of healthcare into the modern digital and networked world, were discussed in the paper presented.
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