Whether or not you’re a lawyer or a doctor, most of us are familiar with a key law protecting patient privacy: HIPAA. Although it’s sometimes assumed that HIPAA provides consumer protections against the misuse of data by wellness, nutrition, and other health-related data, that’s not the case. HIPAA, explains business law attorney Nathaniel Gallegos, “only covers health data collected by specific health-care entities like hospitals or pharmacies.”
In Washington, however, a new law covers this and more. The Washington My Health My Data Act (WMHMDA) was signed into law last year. In the cover story of the new issue of Washington State Bar News, Gallegos gives an overview of WMHMDA, how the Legislature “creatively included” additional consumer protections, the geofencing provision, why it matters for privacy advocates, and how to comply with the law.
“The WMHMDA should be thought of as a privacy law to protect Washington residents from misuse of wellness, nutrition, fitness, location, and other health-related data—and more specifically, as a privacy law with consumer protection teeth,” Gallegos writes.
In another bit of consumer protection legal news, two authors from the WSBA’s Antitrust, Consumer Protection, and Unfair Business Practices Section look at potential antitrust risks from AI, biases embedded in AI algorithms, penalties for unlawful development and deployment of AI, neurotech devices, cognitive liberty, and more.
Have you ever associated the words “page turner” and “90-plus-page law review article”? Of course you haven’t. But WSBA Senior Legal Editor Margaret Morgan is here to tell you why a paper about the 1993 sale of the University of Puget Sound Law School is really worth the read.
In this issue we also have for you: the 2024 state legislative session recap, an ethics analysis of attorneys’ duties to their deceased clients, summaries of recent Washington Supreme Court decisions, disciplinary & other regulatory notices, and more.
