The Digital Health Update by Paul Sonnier ⋅ Sep 30, 2016 ⋅ #241

I made this announcement to 50,590 members of the Digital Health LinkedIn group. If you’re on LinkedIn, please do join the group, which allows you to opt in to receiving these announcements in addition to connecting with thousands of other global stakeholders in digital health. Note that I will continue to update this announcement up until sending out the final version via LinkedIn.

The Digital Health Update by Paul Sonnier ⋅ Sep 30, 2016 ⋅ #241

Dear Group,

At long last the FDA has approved the first artificial pancreas for people with diabetes. The recipient of the clearance is Medtronic’s MiniMed 670G system, which includes a blood sugar/glucose-measuring sensor placed under the skin, an insulin pump attached to the body, and an infusion patch with a catheter that automatically delivers life-saving insulin whenever it’s needed. Patients with type-1 diabetes will finally be able skip annoying finger pricks to check their blood sugar. According to the FDA, a post-market study will be required to better understand how the device performs in real-world settings. The device is expected to be on the market this spring.

Law enforcement utilizes a variety of digital tools, with societal and human health implications—both for civilians and police officers alike. Highly-publicized and controversial police shootings in the United States have often been visible by video from various devices, including body-worn cameras used by police. The US Department of Justice has recently gave $20M to 100 police agencies to buy them. Even so, North Carolina, where the most recent killing of a suspect occurred, is among many states that are limiting access to police videos. And, while citizens have the constitutional right to take photographs and video of the police, this week here in San Diego there were conflicting reports that police confiscated the cell phones of witnesses following a police shooting. Of course, with the increasing ubiquity of all types of video recording devices—including the new Snap/Snapchat ‘Spectacles’ and even drones, like the new, small ‘Mavic Pro’ from DJI, the world’s largest drone maker—it will become increasingly difficult to control what people record. One possible exception is the Apple patent for remotely disabling iPhone cameras.

On the surveillance front, while the Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that it is legal for the police to collect DNA samples from people under arrest, recently, due to a lack of laws saying that they can’t do it, in some cities police are collecting voluntary DNA samples from people who are not under arrest or even suspected of having committed a crime. Police are also using social media surveillance tools to target activists, according to the ACLU’s analysis of documents it obtained from 63 California police departments. Agencies are using Silicon Valley venture-backed tools that are specifically marketed as tools to target activists. Further disconcerting in all of this is that, across the US, police officers are misusing confidential law enforcement databases to get information on romantic partners, business associates, neighbors, journalists, and others for reasons unrelated to daily police work.

Should a “digital rumor” lead to a police raid? While it’s unconstitutional for police to raid a home based solely on an anonymous phone call claiming residents broke the law, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has found that police and courts are regularly conducting and approving raids based on a similar type of unreliable digital evidence: an Internet Protocol (IP) address. In a recent white paper, the EFF is challenging law enforcement and courts’ reliance on IP addresses, without more information, to identify the location of crimes and the individuals responsible. According to the organization, “while IP addresses can be a useful piece of an investigation, authorities need to properly evaluate the information, and more importantly, corroborate it, before IP address information can be used to support police raids, arrests, and other dangerous police operations. IP address information, they say, was designed to route traffic on the Internet, not serve as an identifier for other purposes. IP address information isn’t the same as physical addresses or license plates that can pinpoint an exact location or identify a particular person. Put simply: there is no uniform way to systematically map physical locations based on IP addresses or create a phone book to lookup users of particular IP addresses.”

As if all of the above wasn’t challenging enough, according to a Washington Post article, government lawyers don’t understand the Internet. Cases are being dropped and thrown out of court due to technical legal befuddlement. According to UCLA law professor and cybersecurity expert Kristen Eichensehr, “No one who is practicing today had a cybersecurity class in law school. Everyone who has been in practice has had to learn this on the job.”

And in two more digital crime-fighting strategies, the Burbank, CA police department tried an algorithm-based predictive policing tool the provided geographic “boxes” for police to focus on in their patrols. Results on reducing crime were inconclusive, but the negative impact on officer morale was severe and the system was discontinued. On the flipside, police used DNA phenotyping to paint a digital picture of a woman’s unidentified killer. The digital face is now being distributed in an effort to identify and find the suspect in the 1992 murder case.

Finally, in a surprise twist, Apple, known for it’s focus on user privacy, is actually logging your iMessage contacts and may share them with police.

Follow me on Twitter @Paul_Sonnier for all the news I share each day.

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Paul Sonnier
Social Entrepreneur ⋅ Ecosystem Strategist ⋅ Keynote Speaker
Founder, Digital Health group on LinkedIn ⋅ 50,000+ members
Creator, Story of Digital Health
Instagram @StoryofDigitalHealth
Twitter @Paul_Sonnier
San Diego, CA, USA

 

 

 

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