Week Eleven Exercises

Security, Privacy and IP

Question One

There are allegations that the pharmaceutical company Merck & Co paid specialist nurses $500,000 to hunt through patient records for potential candidates for the firm's new anti-arthritis drug Vioxx. The allegations made in court that the local Merck marketing team provided incentives so that pharmacists would "tell suitable patients" to talk to their doctors about Vioxx.
Juanita Fernando, chair of the Australian Privacy Foundation's health committee, said recent news reports suggested some doctors were "selling or trading health records" to third parties without patients' knowledge or consent. http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,25517817-5013044,00.html

This has only come to light in the past few weeks, and seems like it will be hotly debated over the coming months, while evidence is being gathered. This will now be the subject of a class action in the Federal Court in Melbourne. I look forward to seeing the result of this, especially after the law suit that has already been brought against Merck & Co in relation to this very drug (Vioxx), claiming that it can induce Cardiac complications.

Obviously, there has been little done thus far, in relation to the privacy breach, due to the recentness of the claims. However, I believe that this may result in a tightening of privacy legislation in response.


Question Two

I have been using Turnitin this semester for all of my assignments. I have found it to be a useful resource for completion of assignments. Although, I find that the best aspect of using Turnitin, is the fact that it takes the guesswork out of plagiarism issues. Also, it ensures that the assignments we complete cannot be “ripped-off” by future students. Therefore, giving me peace of mind that the research and hard-work I have put in will not be compromised.

This seems like it ties in extremely well with the issue of privacy. I wouldn’t want anyone accessing my work and taking credit for it. As well an author would like to think that the ideas and concepts they write about, will not be reproduced, without authorization.