Penn Bioethics Seminar Series: Ari B. Friedman, MD, PhD

Health privacy threats from routine web browsing

Ari Friedman, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine

Abstract: Third-party tracking code on health-related webpages may present a significant privacy risk. This code is installed by webpage maintainers, typically to add functionality such as advertisement campaign monitoring or social media linkage. However, they may not appreciate the privacy implications of the code, which can allow advertisers, social media companies, and other entities to record when someone visits a health-related website and how they navigate that site. Routinely linked with other data, this browsing history could provide evidence that someone has sought an abortion, has chronic medical conditions, has contracted HIV, or other potentially sensitive medical conditions.  This browsing history is not protected under HIPAA.  In this talk, we will describe the work of the Penn-CMU Digital Health Privacy Initiative to document the extent of this tracking on COVID-related webpages, hospital websites, medical journals, and other providers.  We will discuss potential implications of this tracking and future work to quantify the implications of this tracking.

For more information, contact Mary Pham, Mary.Pham@pennmedicine.upenn.edu.