Data brokers are offering sensitive mental health info for cheap
As the need for mental health care grows and capacity tightens, patients are turning to telehealth and apps. Hispanics are especially likely to use healthcare apps which are not covered by privacy laws. Researchers found data brokers advertising easy access to very sensitive information for as little as $275. Brokers “advertised highly sensitive mental health data on Americans including data on those with depression, attention disorder, insomnia, anxiety, ADHD, and bipolar disorder as well as data on ethnicity, age, gender, zip code, religion, children in the home, marital status, net worth, credit score, date of birth, and single parent status.” Researchers from Duke University were easily able to access data from brokers, including free samples. Patients in the data sets include students, first responders, government employees, and members of the military. Unlike the EU, the US has no general data protection laws. Researchers called for regulations and transparency policies for healthcare data brokers. More on data brokers.
Among the 70 data elements for sale:
| Name, address, zip code | Depression, anxiety, attention disorder, insomnia, bipolar disorder |
| Gender | Risk scores for depression, anxiety |
| Date of birth | Physical health conditions such as diabetes, allergies, Alzheimer’s, heart problems, etc. |
| Ethnicity | Medical events |
| Marital, single parent status | Lab data (genomic data)/biomarkers |
| Children in the home | Data from management programs, disease registries, wearables |
| Ability to pay for healthcare | Specific medication uses and prescriptions |
| Religion | Prescriber information |
| Net worth, property tax assessments | EMR data |
| College attendance | Average costs per procedure |
| Likelihood of living in a high crime area | Risky health behavior data |
| Voter registration | BMI estimate |
| Health plan | Readmission risk score |
| Medication adherence score | |
| Total cost risk score |