How much is your data worth… to you?

Medical data seems to be the new digital oil. On one side, there is an ever-growing list of companies that are trying the get into this market, on the other hand the market is plagued by underdeveloped solutions which are opening doors to data theft and misuse of sensitive medical data.

Googling “personal data breach” shows an increasing amount of reports where databases containing our personal records get hacked, stolen or destroyed. One of the most vulnerable targets in this case are general hospitals and clinics, which struggle with security protocols, vendor lock-in, cost-cutting and other plagues of the modern health sector that seem incurable.

Big players in the field are catching on quickly. Google is already mining data of US army veterans, Amazon is developing services in the same field and Apple is getting there as well. Offering their solutions to the clinics and other medical institutions will surely be seen as an answer to the problems of underdeveloped and underfinanced systems, but keep in mind these three companies treat personal data as a commodity which must be resold and monetized. Which is alarming.

Here is hypotetical situation, based on the current trends of data usage we are seeing. Google could remarket your medical records and target you with ads that correspond with your medical files, similar to the way they monetize your search results. Amazon could end up recommending you products that will help you with your disease and Apple could share those supposedly private records with third parties/app developers. The lesson from the recent Cambridge Analytica Facebook debacle is — your data is up for grabs. Do you really want that?

With the medical data being centralised in clusters the exposure to future hacks gets greater. Bigger the databases, bigger the threat. Leaving out patients without any control over their own data while at the same time turning over the same data to the digital giants can only spell disaster. What is even worse, there is not escaping from your own medical history. You cannot change your overcome diseases, you cannot escape from your biological ailings.

It gets worse. Even if Apple and the rest of the giants do everything by the book, doctors are getting in on the action as well. A recent survey by Accenture 1 out of 5 doctors are ready to sell your data or give access to it for no more than 500 dollars. You really cannot trust anybody but yourself.

That is why Iryo matters. It is rethinking the concept of medical data storage bottom up, while using the patient as a key nexus that is connecting and protecting every single piece of data. Blockchain is being used as a permission tool, not as a storage device and using a zero knowledge encryption of the data which again offers better protection of the sensitive medical data.

Read more about the Iryo network concept and understand that successful digitalisation of medical health records does not only mean the records get stored online but also that the protection of said records reflects their importance. Everybody else just wants to make a quick buck.