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President-elect Barack Obama has promised to computerize all of America's medical records within five years. He made the pledge last week in a speech at George Mason University. "This will cut waste, eliminate red tape and reduce the need to repeat expensive medical tests," he said. "But it just won't save billions of dollars and thousands of jobs, it will save lives by reducing the deadly but preventable medical errors that pervade our health care system." But the road to digitized medical records will be a tough and expensive one, CNN Money reported. Today, only about 8% of the country's 5,000 hospitals and 17% of its 800,000 physicians use electronic medical records. There is also the issue of patient privacy. Numerous hospitals have faced security issues since moving to electronic medical records. The Industry Standard reported on a security breach at a Los Angeles hospital last month. And then there is the cost. Studies done by Harvard, RAND and the Commonwealth Fund peg the cost of the digitization plan between at least $75 billion to $100 billion, according to the CNN article. However, the health care industry spends $2 trillion dollars a year, so the $100 billion may be well worth the long-term savings.

Facebook's developer platform has been used for a zillion marketing campaigns so far, but this one is actually dead-on hilarious. Fast-food chain Burger King has created "Whopper Sacrifice," a Facebook app that will give you a coupon for a free hamburger if you delete 10 people from your friends list. Burger King has put out some interesting campaigns as of late ("Whopper Virgin," "Subservient Chicken"), but this one piques our interest because of how gleefully it pokes fun at our social-networking obsessions. "Now is the time to put your fair-weather Web friendships to the test," the Whopper Sacrifice site explains. "Install Whopper Sacrifice on your Facebook profile, and we'll reward you with a free flame-broiled Whopper when you sacrifice ten of your friends. The funniest part: The "sacrifices" show up in your activity feed. So it'll say, for example, "Caroline sacrificed Josh Lowensohn for a free Whopper." Unfortunately, you can't delete your whole friends list and eat free (however unhealthily) for a week. The promotion is limited to one coupon per Facebook account. My Facebook friends had better appreciate the fact that I made a New Year's resolution to cut out red meat. Hint, hint.

The offshoring of business processes has become increasingly popular. Fueled by advancements in technology, the benefits of offshoring are primarily attributable to the savings from lower personnel costs at foreign locations. According to the Global Financial Services Offshoring Report 2007 by Deloitte & Touche U.SA LLP, over 75% of major financial institutions report offshoring a portion of their operations. Some economists estimate that up to one-third of total U.S. employment in services may ultimately be offshored (Steve Lohr, "At IBM, a Smarter Way to Outsource," The New York Times, July 5, 2007). Offshore entities often operate in developing countries such as India, China, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Vietnam. The offshoring of business processes generally takes two forms: outsourcing to an unaffiliated offshore entity (offshore outsourcing), or ownership and operation of an affiliated offshore entity (AOE). Many multinational companies have AOEs. For example, Accenture has more employees in India than in the United States; IBM is projected to have more than one-quarter of its workforce in India by 2010; and companies like General Electric, Eli Lilly, Google, and Microsoft are expanding their R&D centers in India and China (House Committee on Science and Technology, June 12, 2002). Offshoring and the Auditing Profession The potential benefits of offshoring have not been ignored by the accounting profession. In past years, several large public accounting firms began using AOEs to perform certain nonaudit procedures for their U.S.-based clients. For example, Ernst & Young uses AOE employees to prepare client tax returns (Vanessa Houlder, "E &Y Sends Compliance Work Offshore," Financial Times, July 11, 2007), and a number of accounting firms use AOEs to print documents for delivery to clients. The largest international public accounting firms have recendy begun testing the offshoring of certain auditing procedures on very large U.S. audit engagements to thei

A new privacy law in Maine is facing a court challenge from media organizations as well as a coalition of online companies including AOL, News Corp. and Yahoo. The new law, officially titled "An Act To Prevent Predatory Marketing Practices against Minors," prohibits companies from knowingly collecting personal information or health-related information from minors under 18 without their parents' consent. The measure also bans companies from selling or transferring health information about minors that identifies them, regardless of how the data was collected. Wednesday, opponents asked the federal district court in Maine to issue an injunction against the measure, slated to take effect Sept. 12. In its court papers, the groups opposing the law say it has consequences far beyond limiting the marketing of health-care information. They contend the measure would "prevent common marketing practices used to serve teens information on colleges, test prep services, class rings, etc." The groups who are suing include the Maine Independent Colleges Association, Maine Press Association, Reed Elsevier and NetChoice -- a coalition of Web companies like AOL, eBay, Yahoo, IAC, News Corp. and Overstock.com.

A privacy researcher is urging Netflix to cancel its next research contest, before it results in potentially millions of dollars in damages for invasion of its customers' privacy. "Netflix should cancel this new, irresponsible contest," Paul Ohm wrote in a blog affiliated with Princeton University's Center for Information Technology Policy. On Monday, the company awarded $1 million to the winners of its first competition, aimed at developing technology to improve its ability to predict what movies its customers will like. Ohm worries the information the company is about to release as test data for the second contest isn't as anonymous as Netflix may think.

"Can personal medical data that has been stripped of its identifiers to protect privacy later be used to identify a specific person? That is the question that the Health and Human Services Department is hoping a research contractor can answer. HHS intends to hire a contractor to demonstrate either the "ability or inability" to re-identify data from a data set that has been de-identified under the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule, according to a Jan. 4 notice on the Federal Business Opportunities Web site. De-identification and re-identification of patient data have become hot issues in the discussion about how to protect patient privacy while advancing adoption of electronic health records. The Obama administration is distributing at least $17 billion in incentive payments to doctors and hospitals who buy and use digital systems for medical data."

U.S. law enforcement officials have expanded their DNA databases to include not only those convicted, but also those arrested but not yet tried. The New York Times reported Saturday the practice has drawn criticism from people who say offenders are presumed innocent. The newspaper said starting this month, the Federal Bureau of Investigation will join 15 states that collect DNA samples from those awaiting trial and will also collect DNA from detained immigrants. The FBI, which already has a DNA database of 6.7 million profiles, expects to add 1.2 million new entries by 2012. "DNA databases were built initially to deal with violent sexual crimes and homicides -- a very limited number of crimes," said Harry Levine, a professor of sociology at City University of New York. "Over time more and more crimes of decreasing severity have been added to the database. Cops and prosecutors like it because it gives everybody more information and creates a new suspect pool." Courts have generally upheld laws authorizing DNA collection from convicts and ex-convicts under supervised release, finding that criminal acts diminish privacy rights.

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Abortion has long been a misguided litmus test for the Supreme Court - but privacy rights?

Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor's views on abortion and privacy rights are coming into the spotlight as attention turns to her confirmation. NARAL Pro-Choice America is urging senators to make sure Sotomayor is questioned on Roe v. Wade and privacy rights during her confirmation hearings. President Barack Obama is pro-choice, but Sotomayor's views are not known. The White House was asked yesterday if the president asked Sotomayor about abortion or privacy rights. A spokesman says the president did not specifically ask that question. The discussion comes as supporters and opponents of Sotomayor's nomination are taking their message to the airwaves. A coalition of liberal groups has unveiled a television advertisement in favor of Sotomayor's confirmation touting her extensive resume, while a conservative group calling itself the Judicial Confirmation Network has put out its own ad, charging Sotomayor will push a liberal agenda based on her gender and racial background. The White House is hoping Sotomayor will get the green light before the Senate goes on recess in August. Republicans are signaling they will not delay Sotomayor's confirmation, but will scrutinize her legal philosophy and some of her past decisions as a judge.

Another test of who owns what data, what can be done with it and the power of State's Rights.

IMS Health (RX) has built a lucrative niche collecting data on which drugs physicians prescribe, then selling the information to pharmaceutical companies. But legislators in more than 20 states have questioned whether the company has a constitutional right to do so. The Supreme Court could shine a spotlight on this topic in the next few weeks if it decides to hear a closely watched case IMS has been fighting in New Hampshire. The court's ruling would quickly reverberate beyond the pharmaceutical industry, affecting virtually any business that uses information about consumer buying behavior to guide its sales strategies.

"The school's policy seems to violate the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), says Susannah Baruch of the Genetics and Public Policy Center at Johns Hopkins University. "Most generally," she says, "GINA prohibits health insurers and employers from using your genetic information against you." The law went fully into effect Nov. 21, and it prevents health insurers from collecting genetic information to make decisions about the insurance people get or how much it costs. The law also says an employer can't use it to make decisions about hiring, firing or job promotions. There are a few exceptions. The law doesn't apply to employers with fewer than 15 workers. And while it covers health insurance, it doesn't apply to life or long-term care insurance."