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back to article Health firm gets £200k slap after IVF patients' records leak online

A private health firm in the UK has been fined £200,000 after fertility patients’ confidential conversations leaked online. The £200,000 monetary penalty was levied following an investigation by Blighty's Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) into the way the Lister Hospital in London was transferring, transcribing and …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Name the supplier as well

    Other hospital may well want to know which company was involved, as they may wish to review current arrangements! So who were they?

    9 0 Reply
  2. Mephistro
    Facepalm

    "The £200,000 monetary penalty..."

    And that's precisely the problem. Ridiculously small fines for jeopardizing their patients privacy in order to save some bucks.

    5 0 Reply
    1. Aitor 1
      Reply Icon

      Re: "The £200,000 monetary penalty..."

      And if they insist on taking no precautions, send them to prison.

      3 0 Reply
    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "The £200,000 monetary penalty..."

      Not even £200k - it is reduced to £160k for prompt payment, and as HCA self-reported, they'll not be tardy in paying up.

      2 0 Reply
  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    'HCA International has not only broken the law, it has betrayed the trust of its patients'

    * Outsourced to India just to save a few pennies by hiring cheaper transcribers ... And it all leads to this classic Data Leak... Things just keep getting better and better...

    * What more can we expect with such a paltry fine!! Lawsuit coming? Maybe, and if so that should concentrate a few minds, as the transcripts are privileged and possibly somewhat revealing / embarrassing!

    * I'd like to see company directors get named and shamed in these articles too. Make it personal, compel a change in behaviour from what are reckless procedures that are not good for internet-health.

    7 0 Reply
  4. David Neil

    Is that all?

    In the US at least the HIPAA has some teeth and people can get prison time. Not often I look at their practices and think they are better than ours.

    4 0 Reply
  5. Will Godfrey Silver badge
    Unhappy

    Slap?

    No. That's barely a tickle

    3 0 Reply
    1. Robert Helpmann??
      Reply Icon

      Re: Slap?

      And my first thought was "I wonder what their safe word was." Apparently it did not involve actual safety.

      1 0 Reply
  6. Anonymous South African Coward Bronze badge

    200k seems a bit on the paltry side.

    Here's what should work - have the execs pay said fine. They either will ensure that it will never happen again, or they'll resign and others will come in and fix the mess.

    Not sure of that though.

    2 0 Reply
    1. Alan Brown Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      £200k

      Is just the ICO fine.

      Affected people can also claim - and it might well be the death of 1 million paper cuts which actaully makes companies blink.

      This is the kind of area where a few enterprising ambulance chasers could earn steady coin. The fact that the ICO's hit them with a large fine would make any civil case a matter of determining individual compensation levels rather than having to prove the leak.

      0 0 Reply
  7. JHC_97

    considering there webpage proudly asserts they have £ 1/2Bn invested in British health care 200k is risible.

    1 0 Reply

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