No Pictures, Please!
This week’s top story on the Web, “LA Confidential,” addresses the new fascination with celebrities becoming patients. Now the lens is turning on us; patients are becoming celebrities, and they’re not exactly basking in the spotlight.
With the rising popularity of YouTube, MySpace and other social networking sites, cell phone cameras are becoming the tool du jour in documenting everyday real-life. The University of New Mexico Hospital, however, is facing a backlash from the trend; a slew of privacy concerns were raised after amateur paparazzi—who also worked at the hospital—photographed patients who were waiting for treatment.
According to reports, the hospital employees used the unauthorized photos to jazz up a MySpace page. (Who wants to network with someone who posts photos rivaling scenes from “House,” I’m not quite sure.) Needless to say, the hospital terminated their employment.
This isn’t the first time it’s happened either; Tri-City Hospital in Oceanside, CA and UCLA’s neuropsychiatric hospital dealt with similar privacy violations involving cell phone cameras and laptops.
But will hospital-wide bans on such technology help? Cell phones are virtually glued to our hands, and with models approaching the size of a paper clip and skilled users who can send texts from their pockets, they’re becoming even more difficult to detect. Without a precedent, hospitals are struggling to anticipate violations that range as wide as technology and (creepy) creativity can go.
Never mind the $299 price tag; the real cost of these modern conveniences is our privacy.