An Argument Against Keeping Health Information Private

Kashmir Hill
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Harvard Law Professor Jonathan Zittrain, a specialist in electronic privacy, who wrote the book The Future of the Internet and How To Stop It, taught a very interesting life lesson in the past week about the benefits of sharing health information online. Fellow Harvard Law prof Lawrence Lessig co-taught.

Zittrain developed mysterious symptoms last week and doctors (at Harvard!) could not figure out what was wrong with him. He and Lessig open-sourced the diagnosing of the disease, and Internet denizens helped dig up an obscure Korean medical article that has proved extremely useful. Twitter and Boing Boing assisted.

Check out this post on Zittrain's blog: The Future of Zittrain Has Not Been Stopped, or read this synopsis at the Los Angeles Times.

Published by Kashmir Hill - Privacy and Legal Contributor to True/Slant

I am a writer, reporter, editor and blogger. I'm an editor at Above The Law, where I blog about lawyers, judges, law firms and the legal industry. At True/Slant, I write about our changing notions of privacy...   View profile

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