So, you can actually opt out of the My Health Record between 16 July to 15 October 2018. My Health Record is an online, 'protected' database of all your personal medical details, accessible by healthcare professionals.
Can you trust whatever current political party is in power at the time to hold fast with your personal medical data, even though there are already plans to pass out your information for secondary data use? The current legislation states "Data cannot be used for commercial and non-health-related purposes, including direct marketing to consumers, insurance assessments, and eligibility for welfare benefits". This is the legislation for now, though it's possible it may change in the future. When it changes, your data will be most likely sold/passed out post-hoc, without your consent. There are three previously established precedents in recent history to refer to:
1) A Centrelink recipient who publicly criticised Centrelink had their personal data released by the government to reporters. STI or mental health history passed out to discredit dissenting opinions? Possibly. Scary stuff IMHO.
2) In 2016, the Department of Health gave National bowel and cervical cancer screening databases to the Telstra-owned Health Engine, without concent. It was discovered in 2018 Telstra was selling patient medical information data for targeted marketing and sharing a register of prospective clients to a partner law firm. This Health Engine online database has data-sharing arrangements with My Health Record.
3) Most governments don't care about your personal data/security. There have been 14 data breaches from the Australian Bureau of Statistics since 2013.
Can't wait to apply for a junk health insurance in a few years, from an industry which couldn't survive without regular subsidies and civilian blackmail in the form of the Medicare levy. I wonder if my health situation stored on My Health Record will ever get into the hands of health insurers...
From a infosec standpoint, decentralisation is the best defense against both physical and digital breach.
References for further reading:
