Information about one’s health is an issue that most people would consider as inviolable in terms of privacy. It is information between you and your physician. Would you entrust that information to Microsoft? With the launch of HealthVault, Microsoft is offering a place to store your personal data base:

“…From the consumer’s point of view, Microsoft’s HealthVault site is part library, part filing cabinet and part fax machine for an individual or family’s medical records and notes.

The free site is tied to a health information search engine the software company launched at the end of last month. It gives users a repository for health-related data such as medical histories, immunizations and records from the doctor’s office and hospital visits as well as measurements from devices like heart rate monitors.”

link: Microsoft Launches Health Records Site

For Microsoft, this is may be another revenue center, with advertising supporting the service. The privacy and security are crucial issues. If Microsoft is correct, the public’s concept of privacy in the technological age has shifted enough so that people will assume the risk of sharing health information via the web service. And Microsoft becomes the guardian of that data.

Catherine Forsythe
Director of Operations
FlyingHamster: http://flyinghamster.com/

Tags: microsoft, privacy, security, healthvault, data base, advertising, web service