Sunday, February 10, 2019

The California model: Legislate in haste, repair whenever, dude.
Inside the lobbying war over California’s landmark privacy law
A landmark law adopted in California last year to rein in the data-collection practices of Facebook, Google and other tech giants has touched off a lobbying blitz that could water it down, potentially undermining new protections that might apply to Internet users across the country.
… Other states this year have sprung to action in a bid to follow California’s lead. Lawmakers in New Mexico have put forward a bill that largely copies Sacramento. In Massachusetts, members of the legislature unveiled a proposal that would allow consumers to sue if their privacy is violated. And in the state of Washington, Democratic Sen. Reuven Carlyle authored a measure that borrows from Europe’s approach.
“I don’t think there’s a state legislature in the country that doesn’t want comprehensive, sweeping legislation they craft to become a national model,” Carlyle said.




“Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” That’s a defense that could be impossible to disprove.
Alex Hernandez reports:
…U.S. Senator Ron Wyden from (D) Oregon is purposing a new bill that would deal out jail time to executives whose companies violate online privacy.
Senator Ron Wyden isn’t only pitching jail time but also billions of dollars in fines on companies and executives who enable privacy breaches. The senior senator from Oregon believes that privacy and data breaches are corporate fraud and should be dealt with accordingly.
Read more on TechAeris.




HIPAA compliance may be a bit much to ask for.
New voices at patients’ bedsides: Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Apple
… Hospitals are exploring new uses in intensive care units and surgical recovery rooms, and contemplating a future in which Alexa, or another voice avatar, becomes a virtual member of the medical team — monitoring doctor-patient interactions, suggesting treatment approaches, or even alerting caregivers to voice changes that could be an early warning of a health emergency.
“Why not have a connected speaker in the room listening to conversations?” asked John Brownstein, chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital, which is piloting dozens of voice applications. Voice technology still remains at the edges of patient care, he added, but the hospital is already using it to improve the efficiency of ICU care and help prepare doctors for transplant surgeries.
… Underlying that work is an increasingly fierce competition for health care dollars among giant technology companies and scores of startups that are investing heavily in voice-enabled products and services. Clinicians are waiting to see which of the largest companies will be the first to introduce a smart speaker that fully complies with health care privacy laws, a step that would allow them to delve even deeper into patient care.
… Several startups have already created HIPAA-compliant voice software for use with electronic medical records systems. Sopris Health, a Denver-based company, developed a product designed to automatically convert a doctor-patient conversation into text that is then loaded into a doctor’s note. Other competitors in the field include Suki, Notable, Nuance, and Seattle-based SayKara, which is led by former Amazon engineers.




Reminds me of the recent ‘Artificial Lawyer’ article.
Will A.I. Put Lawyers Out Of Business?
What is the law but a series of algorithms? Codified instructions proscribing dos and don’ts—ifs and thens. Sounds a lot like computer programming, right? The legal system, on the other hand, is not as straightforward as coding. Just consider the complicated state of justice today, whether it be problems stemming from backlogged courts, overburdened public defenders, and swathes of defendants disproportionately accused of crimes.
So, can artificial intelligence help?
Very much so. Law firms are already using AI to more efficiently perform due diligence, conduct research and bill hours. But some expect the impact of AI to be much more transformational. It’s predicted AI will eliminate most paralegal and legal research positions within the next decade. Could judges and lawyers share the same fate? My coauthor Michael Ashley and I spoke to experts about AI’s impact on the legal system for our upcoming book, Own the A.I. Revolution: Unlock Your Artificial Intelligence Strategy to Disrupt Your Competition.
It may even be considered legal malpractice not to use AI one day,” says Tom Girardi, renowned civil litigator and the real-life inspiration for the lawyer in the movie, Erin Brockovich. “It would be analogous to a lawyer in the late twentieth century still doing everything by hand when this person could use a computer.”




Perspective. Soon to be “mandatory” technology? Can an employer require you to wear a monitor away from work?
Fitbit has a new health tracker, but you can only get it through your employer or insurer
… Fitbit has been developing software to help companies give employees tools to track their health and encourage behavior change. The Inspire, which has basic features like heart rate, step tracking, and calories burned, adds hardware to its line of business-to-business products. The Inspire is available as a wristband or a clip, which can more easily be hidden under clothing and might prove appealing to corporate users.
"We built it as a program for digital health interventions," Park said, in an interview at Fitbit's headquarters this week.
… Both Fitbit and Apple are telling employers and insurers that they can help bring health-care costs down by improving overall wellness. The devices are typically offered through workplace wellness programs, and are subsidized, earned through healthy behavior or available free of charge.


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