Musings on privacy issues in health research involving disaggregate geographic data about individuals.

ABSTRACT: This paper offers a state-of-the-art overview of the intertwined privacy, confidentiality, and security issues that are commonly encountered in health research involving disaggregate geographic data about individuals. Key definitions are provided, along with some examples of actual and potential security and confidentiality breaches and related incidents that captured mainstream media and public interest in recent months and years. The paper then goes on to present a brief survey of the research literature on location privacy/confidentiality concerns and on privacy-preserving solutions in conventional health research and beyond, touching on the emerging privacy issues associated with online consumer geoinformatics and location-based services. The 'missing ring' (in many treatments of the t

SUBMITTER: Boulos MN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2716332 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature