Dartmouth College professor M. Eric Johnson, in collaboration with Tiversa, Inc., a company that monitors peer-to-peer networks to provide security services, wrote an article titled "Data Hemorrhages in the Health-Care Sector." In preparing the article, Johnson and Tiversa searched the networks for data that could be used to commit medical or financial identity theft. They found a document that con - tained the Social Security numbers, insurance information, and treatment codes for patients of LabMD, Inc. Tiversa noti - fied LabMD of the find in order to solicit its business. Instead of hiring Tiversa, however, LabMD filed a suit in a federal district court against the company, alleging trespass, conver - sion, and violations of federal statutes. What do these facts indicate about the security of private information? Explain. How should the court rule?

Question

Aryan Glenn

Business

18 January, 19:08

Dartmouth College professor M. Eric Johnson, in collaboration with Tiversa, Inc., a company that monitors peer-to-peer networks to provide security services, wrote an article titled "Data Hemorrhages in the Health-Care Sector." In preparing the article, Johnson and Tiversa searched the networks for data that could be used to commit medical or financial identity theft. They found a document that con - tained the Social Security numbers, insurance information, and treatment codes for patients of LabMD, Inc. Tiversa noti - fied LabMD of the find in order to solicit its business. Instead of hiring Tiversa, however, LabMD filed a suit in a federal district court against the company, alleging trespass, conver - sion, and violations of federal statutes. What do these facts indicate about the security of private information? Explain. How should the court rule?

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Answers (1)

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Maurice Hughes · Answer 1

The facts given in this case study indicate that private information shared with external organizations have to be protected and secured i. e there should be no data leakage of private information which are digitally stored.

Explanation:

This case study is a classic case of violation of data protection stored in digital form. This is a real case which was handled by the Pennsylvania District Court. When LabMD filed a suit against Tiversa, the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) to whom Tiversa shared the file of LabMD, the FTC filed charges against LabMD. The grounds of the charge were that LabMD had inadequate data security of its patients personal data and it violated data protection laws under the Federal Trade Commission Act. The allegation of LabMD against Tiversa was that it had hacked its systems to gain the personal data of its patients. But Tiversa countered this allegations and stated that LabMD's data protection was not sufficient and this led to the availability of personal data of LabMD's patients, float on the digital network freely. Tiversa won this case and LabMD was slapped with violation of FTC Act under 'unfair practice' being followed. The District Court further passed an enforcement order against LabMD, favouring Tiversa.