Four things to know:
1. The Public Health Emergency Privacy Act would require the data collection companies to meet security standards and delete the information after any public health emergency subsided.
2. Government agencies would not be able to use the data collected in contact tracing efforts for any reason beyond public health efforts, barring its use in commercial advertising or insurance initiatives under the proposed legislation.
3. Going forward, any contact tracing efforts would have to be opt-in under the proposal. The Google-Apple collaboration is an opt-in service for users to trace their location and notify them if they’ve come in contact with another person who is infected with COVID-19.
4. Lawmakers would not be able to make contact tracing a requirement to participate in U.S. elections.
More articles on health IT:
Judy Faulkner: 5 areas of focus for Epic right now
The hospital room of the future: Dr. Alistair Erskine’s 5 predictions
The potential second surge of COVID-19 patients & ‘new normal’ post pandemic: 3 insights from hospital IT leaders
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