LAUSR

Cad. Saúde Pública 2018; 34(7):e00039417 “...a person’s private and personal life, honor, and image are inviolable, and he/she is entitled to compensation for any material or moral damage resulting from the violation thereof” (Brazilian Federal Constitution, 1988, art. 5, item X). Healthcare data privacy is an urgent contemporary issue, and there are few studies on privacy in healthcare practices that use information and communication technologies (ICTs). Such privacy is a fundamental right based on the constitutional principle of personal dignity, which is still not universally acknowledged 1,2. Our point of departure is that we now live in the Information Society, based on the extensive development of ICTs, with exponential growth in the speed and amount of digitized personal data whose privacy is not always sufficiently protected 3. We also assume the existence of a Risk Society in which scientific and technological development often escapes prediction and control, with serious consequences for human health 4. Paradoxically, in the context of the discussion on privacy, these same technologies foster the expansion and emergence of new experiences and practices in the exercise of citizenship. ICTs provide possibilities for social innovation through communication networks and the creation of cyberspace and cyberculture 5,6. However, privacy is seriously threatened by the so-called Surveillance Society, based on computational mediation through data mining, marketing, and oversight mechanisms that effectively eliminate people’s control over their own data. Surveillance capitalism threatens democratic norms, since governments and private companies take growing interest in gaining access to people’s data, with obvious repercussions on privacy 7,8. The data privacy issue has three major dimensions in this context that are subject to analysis: legal, political-cultural, and technological. In the legal dimension, the world has witnessed the need to innovate and consolidate laws and rulings into an appropriate and systemic body of legislation. As for the technological dimension, we highlight the need to increase data security with the acquisition of operational systems, database managers, the development of safe software, and data anonymization. The political-cultural or behavioral dimension highlights the fundamental importance of technical, technological, political, and ethical capacity-building for healthcare service providers, policymakers, professionals, and users 2,9,10,11. 1 Núcleo de Economia e Tecnologia em Saúde, Instituto de Saúde, São Paulo, Brasil.