12 Sep Prescription Records Have Zero Privacy Expectations Due to the DEA and Drug War
A recent opinion piece by TechDirt has revealed that privacy of sensitive health information such as prescription records may no longer have the legal protection that it once had.
US Congress had previously passed a law that regulates disclosure of sensitive records, with other states taking the extra mile by protecting prescription records. This prevented medical personnel to share sensitive information when a user consent is absent. This also meant local law agencies needed a warrant to acquire prescription data.
However, in a blogpost released by Leslie Francis and John Francis through the Oxford University Press Blog, these congressional and state protections have been retracted by federal law enforcement agencies. With the DEA using the supremacy clause stating that “federal laws are superior to conflicting state laws” to which the court agreed.
Source: Tech Dirt
