Our 'Brave New World' with Medical Profiling

[Jim Koepke]

This is not my opinion, it is just sharing an article. The world we knew from five or six decades ago is changing faster than we ever knew.

Actuaries predict your life span. Banks track your spending habits. Now, your employer can tell whether you’ll have diabetes a year from now.

And the federal government is encouraging businesses to use that information to tell you how to eat and exercise, to “data mine” for your own good and the employer’s bottom line.

Medical records, social media, credit card records and new activity tracking gadgets like Fitbits are being used to assess your riskiness to yourself and to the cost-conscious health care system.

Aetna is among the companies paving the way. It’s using data analytics and interventions on its own 50,000 employees — and about 40 of the companies it insures are using them, too.

The data explosion — some would say intrusion — is being fueled by trends in the private sector and by federal policies, including elements of Obamacare.


Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/0...#ixzz387hMdj37

[Phil Thien]

Obesity and obesity-related illness/disease has become the last acceptable discrimination. You can say whatever you want, do whatever you want, thin people "hate on" fat people with impunity.

[Brian Elfert]

I think most people figure you can't control if you are male or female, your skin color (ethnicity), your age, or your sexual orientation, but these same people figure that someone's weight is something the person can control. Someone who is obese may have an eating disorder and really can't control their weight.

[David Weaver]

I think most people figure you can't control if you are male or female, your skin color (ethnicity), your age, or your sexual orientation, but these same people figure that someone's weight is something the person can control. Someone who is obese may have an eating disorder and really can't control their weight.

This is a rare exception, though. Most of us are overweight because we don't care, not because we can't do anything about it.

As a friend used to tell me when I wasn't progressing as fast as I wanted to professionally, "you're not doing it because you don't want to, not because you can't. If you wanted to, you'd do it".

Anyone with an eating disorder could be diagnosed, but the rest of us who are just sedentary and don't want to be inconvenienced by not satisfying boredom with food would be diagnosed as....being too lazy to do something about it.

[Jim Koepke]

Obesity and obesity-related illness/disease has become the last acceptable discrimination. You can say whatever you want, do whatever you want, thin people "hate on" fat people with impunity.

I was also reading food quotes today.

"Pizza tastes better than it feels to be thin." - Unknown

Be careful what you say to an overweight person or you might find out what it feels like to support all that weight when they sit on you.

jtk

[Pat Barry]

I know many companies are encouraging their employees to participate in biometrics data - they offer reduced health care rates for those who participate. I think the end is near - I don't want my company know that much about me. I think its really none of their business - much like it should be none of their concern what race I am or what religion I participate in or what political party I vote for. If it isn't about my job then they should stop 'helping me' - I don't want their help.

[Eric DeSilva]

Obesity and obesity-related illness/disease has become the last acceptable discrimination. You can say whatever you want, do whatever you want, thin people "hate on" fat people with impunity.

First, I don't think that is correct. It's been my experience that people seem to get very bent out of shape when obesity makes someone a target. So I don't see hating on obese people as being condoned generally.

Second, discrimination is sort of a loaded word, and the way you have made the statement seems to imply the discrimination is inherently wrong--it is almost as if there is an unwritten "unjust" in front of discrimination. But I'll point out that discrimination isn't inherently wrong--discriminating between two things is perfectly acceptable in lots of different contexts, say, those running red lights (who get tickets) and those that don't (who don't get tickets). Discrimination seems--at least to me--to warrant the pejorative connotation where we change our behavior towards people who exhibit characteristics that are immutable (race, gender, age, sexual preference) or protected (religion, marital status). But that puts obesity into a tricky category, because there are clearly people who are obese because of medical conditions (or even certain environmental factors) who can't change. But there are also people who can change--eat less, eat better, exercise more. I remember reading an essay probing why it is OK to walk up to someone smoking and say "that's disgusting," but not to walk up to an obese person eating a Big Mac and tell them the same thing. In some ways there are similarities--activities that, with long term habits, endanger the person and arguably also impose societal costs by raising the health care costs of everyone. Food for thought, so to speak.

[Scott Shepherd]

It's really sad to me that people are handing over their privacy rights by the box load and it doesn't seem to be a concern for anyone. It's sad because once it's out there, it's out there. You can't unring the bell. I'm pretty geeky, but not an ubergeek and the things I have seen and read about what's being collected and the power it gives people is shocking. I suspect if most people knew what was really happening, they'd revolt against it, however, most are more concerned about who George Clooney is dating than their own privacy. Very sad state of affairs.

This country used to represent freedom. Not so much any more. If you're tracking my every move, my every call, recording every call I make, to every contact I have, storing every email I send, logging and storing all my health information, watching all my spending, so you know when I did order a Big Mac, monitoring all my t.v usage (yes, the suppliers are already doing that), then about the only time I have any freedom is when I'm in the shower.

[Chuck Wintle]

It's really sad to me that people are handing over their privacy rights by the box load and it doesn't seem to be a concern for anyone. It's sad because once it's out there, it's out there. You can't unring the bell. I'm pretty geeky, but not an ubergeek and the things I have seen and read about what's being collected and the power it gives people is shocking. I suspect if most people knew what was really happening, they'd revolt against it, however, most are more concerned about who George Clooney is dating than their own privacy. Very sad state of affairs.

This country used to represent freedom. Not so much any more. If you're tracking my every move, my every call, recording every call I make, to every contact I have, storing every email I send, logging and storing all my health information, watching all my spending, so you know when I did order a Big Mac, monitoring all my t.v usage (yes, the suppliers are already doing that), then about the only time I have any freedom is when I'm in the shower.

Scott,

Its my guess that most internet users are very unaware of the power of data mining and collection. And once they begin to suspect that information ls being gathered what can they reasonably do about it?

[Scott Shepherd]

Scott,

Its my guess that most internet users are very unaware of the power of data mining and collection. And once they begin to suspect that information ls being gathered what can they reasonably do about it?

Chuck, it's not the internet that's the issue. It's everything else. From your debit card swipes at the grocery store, Best Buy, Target, to the t.v. you are watching. Yes, they are actually logging the t.v. shows that are watched, building that data profile of you as a customer and using that data (or selling it). I worry far more about the stuff that's non-internet related than I do anything else.

You don't have to be a geek to be worried about someone gathering up all the data about everything you do and selling it to companies that use that data to manipulate you and your buying decisions, insurance risks, health insurance, etc.

People (generally older people) freak out over the thought of identity theft and someone getting access to their bank account. For the most part, that's the least of my worries. Get access to it? No problem, I'll get the money back. Might be an inconvenience for a couple of days, but I can rebuild from that pretty easily. However, take all my lifestyle data and sell it to an insurance company and I doubt I can do much about that.

[Dave Anderson NH]

Just a friendly warning about the Terms of Service prohibiting political discussions and discourse. I mention this because threads of this type have historically turned into train wrecks and often end up being at best heavily edited by the moderators, but more often end up deleted.

[Eric DeSilva]

Chuck, it's not the internet that's the issue. It's everything else. From your debit card swipes at the grocery store, Best Buy, Target, to the t.v. you are watching. Yes, they are actually logging the t.v. shows that are watched, building that data profile of you as a customer and using that data (or selling it). I worry far more about the stuff that's non-internet related than I do anything else.

I fully agree with you that people need to exercise care about what data they allow to be kept by merchants they deal with (whether virtual or brick-and-mortar), but there are a couple observations I'd make for the record.

First, this isn't new. The digitalization of data has created greater opportunities to correlate material and refine the conclusions people draw from that. But I remember reading an article in the Washington Post 30 years ago about carrier-route-sorted mail and targeted advertising. Basically, even then, knowing the carrier route you were now at plus some tracking that identified the carrier-route locales for your prior residences (which is largely public records), they could build a profile of you that was horribly accurate in terms of marital status, number of kids, age, income and the like. So the fact that there are companies trying to figure out how to market to you better shouldn't be a real surprise, and we should all be careful of the breadcrumbs we leave them.

Second, there is a great distinction I'd draw between individually identifiable data and data in aggregate. Google bought Nest, which makes a thermostat that is hugely consumer-friendly (think iPhone of thermostats) and interconnected. While I'm guessing any Nest user has the option of blocking Google tracking, I'm also guessing that most people haven't opted out and that their data is being collected and Google is permitted to use the data on a non-individually identifiable basis. If you think about it, it is a pretty powerful source of information, but if I was a Nest user, I'm not sure--as long as no one could extract my data--that would bother me. Nor am I certain it should--there is a lot we can learn about when and how people work, vacation, and how they use energy that could be highly beneficial to society at large.

Third, the article that is linked doesn't really seem to make clear whether employees are being compelled to wear activity trackers, or whether wearing an activity tracker provides you a discount on your health insurance. Even in the case where you are wearing one--whether under duress or not--the article isn't particularly clear about whether the company is using your biometric data or not. I like activity trackers--having worn one, I can attest that observed behavior changes. Wearing one will cause you to think about upping your step count instead of taking a cab, or upping the stairs climbed count instead of taking the elevator. I can see a company encouraging the use of them purely on that basis, the same way some companies have fitness centers or offer discounts on memberships to gyms.

I don't like the idea of a world where NSA is reading my emails and my employer, health insurance company, and doctors are all sharing my data and coercing me into behavioral changes. But I'm more OK with the world where my employer offers me discounted health insurance for not smoking. The article doesn't seem to get to the core of these distinctions.

[Jim Koepke]

Basically, even then, knowing the carrier route you were now at plus some tracking that identified the carrier-route locales for your prior residences (which is largely public records), they could build a profile of you that was horribly accurate in terms of marital status, number of kids, age, income and the like. So the fact that there are companies trying to figure out how to market to you better shouldn't be a real surprise, and we should all be careful of the breadcrumbs we leave them.

Some of the marketers are good at this, some are a bit annoying. Most annoying is after making a purchase the retailer sends a special coupon good for buying more of what was just purchased.

Google tracking is kind of strange. If you look at items on some sites you will soon start seeing ads on web pages for their products.

People (generally older people) freak out over the thought of identity theft and someone getting access to their bank account. For the most part, that's the least of my worries. Get access to it? No problem, I'll get the money back. Might be an inconvenience for a couple of days, but I can rebuild from that pretty easily.

You could go into a recovery business or write a book if this is true. The Federal Trade Commission estimates an average of 6 months and 200 hours of work to clean up an identity theft episode. This of course depends on what was done, how fast it was caught and whether your information was sold to other ID thieves.

[Scott Shepherd]

You could go into a recovery business or write a book if this is true. The Federal Trade Commission estimates an average of 6 months and 200 hours of work to clean up an identity theft episode. This of course depends on what was done, how fast it was caught and whether your information was sold to other ID thieves.

Jim, it might take 6 months to get your credit score and all that back, but you'll have the money back in your bank account for any fraudulent transactions pretty darn fast. Someone charges things to your credit card, just call it in, file the report, and it's reversed. Overall, it's pretty painless, in a relative term, and there are open and published steps to take and fix it all. However, when someone gathers your data without your knowledge, exactly how do you fix that? If they take medical information and sell it to insurance companies, how can one ever recover from that? My point being that's a lot more trouble to deal with, especially when you aren't aware it's happening, than dealing with things that smack you in the face when they happen, like someone accessing your bank account information.

[Jim Matthews]

The article doesn't seem to get to the core of these distinctions.

I'm not convinced everyone responding to this article noted such distinctions, or even read to the last line.
It feels more like the electric rabbit was set in motion, the gates opened and THEY'RE OFF!

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