A tiny federal agency tasked with protecting the public from injuries caused by lawn mowers and coffeemakers is demanding that some of the nation’s biggest health systems turn over detailed, personally identifiable medical records of all patients who seek help at their emergency rooms. The Consumer Product Safety Commission, responsible for tracking and issuing recalls of dangerous products…
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US health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is pursuing federal government access to most Americans’ medical records, in a quest to research a link between vaccines and autism — a connection the medical establishment studied for decades and flatly rejects. The Department of Health and Human Services is seeking data from little-known state systems that allow hospitals and clinics to exchange…
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Colorado’s Democratic governor faced backlash on Wednesday after vetoing legislation that would have cracked down on surveillance pricing, an increasingly common practice whereby corporations use personal data to set individualized prices on groceries and other goods. Gov. Jared Polis, who is term-limited and thus not up for reelection, said in his veto letter that he “appreciate[s] the…
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One online grocery shopper got charged $3.99 for a box of Wheat Thins, while another — buying from the same store at the same time — got charged $4.89. A consumer watchdog detected this price discrepancy during an investigation last September in Seattle. The grocery app Instacart used an artificial intelligence-powered algorithm that charged customers differently for each item by as much as…
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