Web-Tones

Gloom and Doom or the New Reality?

When Will The Recovery Begin? Never. | Robert Reich's Blog. I think it's the latter. The old economy is dead and it "ain't never coming back." Why? Because the consumer is broke, and becoming more broke everyday, globally. We are not in Kansas anymore folks. I have often said that we are going to have to innovate our way out of this mess, and I mean really innovate!

So we have a new economy under going a painful birth. It will likely have a messy childhood and a turbulent adolescence. What else is new? More separation everywhere  between those that have and those that don't. More political unrest. It is time to face the music, the path we were on was completely unsustainable.

Simplistic ideas are not going work and even the best ideas are going to challenge our collective courage, political and otherwise. There is not an industry that won't be turned upside down. This inflection point will make the change that occurred during the industrial revolution look like child's play, consider:

• The old newpaper industry gone
• The old music industry gone
• The health care industry collapsing under its own weight
• The financial system barely breathing

And the fun hasn't started yet. I am an optimistic, we are going to end up in a better place. The future of our children and our grandchildren depend on it. A new vibrant economy will rise from these ashes. But don't expect it to happen anytime soon. The arc of the moral universe bends toward just outcomes. We just need to get up every morning and decide what role we want to play in this unfolding drama.

In the words of Joni Mitchell:

We are stardust, we are golden
We are million year old carbon
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden

Can't you hear that guitar riff wailing?

Twitter & Virus Tracking?

Twitter: Growing Virally But Can It Stop Viruses?. Interesting post from Chris Thorman
regarding the use of Twitter by health care professionals to track viruses. Of course, as the post highlights, there are many issues to be worked out before this concept becomes widely adopted, not the least of which are the privacy and security issues.

As a Privacy Lawyer that focuses on HIPAA/HITECH compliance, I understand why the the health care industry will be slow to adopt social media, but I am convinced that over time the privacy and security issues will be managed in a manner that both protects consumers and allows for innovation, similar to how analogous challenges were met with repect to online banking.

Canadien Health Care Data Breach

Computer virus copied thousands of Alberta health records. This is not the kind of thing a health care organization wants to be talking about. The next time a health care data breach of this magnitude happens in the U.S. it will rock the industry!

With the proposed massive exchange of protected health information (PHI) in ARRA, you can bet that privacy and security will remain a hot topic for many years to come. The HITECH Act transforms HIPAA from a paper tiger to a dangerous stalker on the prowl.

Enforcement of Privacy Laws: A Freight Train is Coming

European Privacy Law And Social Networking : Privacy Law Blog. This post is a good indication why privacy on the internet is not only front and center as a national issue in the U.S. but is a concern internationally as well.

Online businesses need to start paying more attention to these issues, including (and especially) any health care sites. As a privacy attorney I have spent quite a bit of time lately reviewing in depth the FTC Red Flags Rules and the HITECH Act's impact on HIPAA.

I can assure readers that any lax enforcement of privacy laws on the part of government agencies is a thing of the past. The HITECH Act's Subtitle-D (Privacy) clearly transforms HIPAA from a paper tiger into one with visible teeth. Here's a brief summary of relevant changes to HIPAA under HITECH:

1. HHS Mandatory Audits
2. Business Associates are explicitly required to comply with HIPAA's Privacy and Security Rules.
3. State Attorney Generals are authorized to bring a civil action on behalf of residents.
4. Funds from civil fines will go into the coffers of HHS' Office of Civil Rights (this alone is a game changer).

The point is that across the board, whether it is HHS or the FTC, government agencies are increasingly becoming more aggressive in their enforcement actions. There is a regulatory freight train coming at then end of the tunnel unlike anything we have seen since Sarbanes-Oxley (aka SOX)..

It's Early in Web Years Redux

Details on Marc Andreessen’s New Fund (Plus Five Other Interesting Things He Said). Anyone heard of Marc of Netscape/Ning fame? He is one of the most grounded people in Tech. Why? He has this smart no BS, common sense, way of discussing the industry. Here he indicates that it is still early in the game because no one can predict where the Web is headed, because as pure software platform it has few contraints.

It short, It's Still Early in Web Years.