EPIC Urges Court to Consider Privacy Interest in De-Identified Patient Data.

EPIC and 16 experts in privacy and technology today filed a "friend of the court" brief in a case concerning a New Hampshire state law banning the sale of prescriber-identifiable prescription drug data for marketing purposes. The experts urged the First Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse the ruling of the lower court, which held that the NH Prescription Confidentiality Act violated the free speech rights of data mining companies. The experts said the lower court should be reversed because there is a substantial privacy interest in de-identified patient data that the lower court failed to consider. This privacy interest, in part flows from the reality that data may not be, in fact, truly de-identified, and also because de-identified data does impact actual individuals. (August 20, 2007)

This is EPIC's "Friend of the Court" Amicus Brief.