Medical provider might be recording your mental health care visits
The article reports that some medical providers are recording mental health care visits without patients' full awareness or consent, raising privacy concerns. These recordings, often used for training or billing purposes, may be shared with third parties. Patients are often not clearly informed about these practices.
Background
- The Markup is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates how technology affects society, with a focus on data privacy and algorithmic harm.
- This article reports that some US healthcare providers are using “virtual sitting” services — third-party remote monitoring companies that watch patients via webcam, often without patients realizing it or giving meaningful consent.
- These services are pitched as a cheaper alternative to in-person safety attendants for patients at risk of falls or self-harm, and are increasingly used in behavioral health settings.
- The key concern: these companies may record, store, analyze, or share footage in ways that patients never agreed to, and the legal protections (HIPAA) may not cover these recordings as thoroughly as patients assume.
- This relates to a broader pattern in digital health: the rapid adoption of surveillance tools that blur the line between care and monitoring, often without clear patient safeguards.