Of course, the problem of misadventure in the use of human data extends to many many other sectors of our activity, from knowing everything we eat, to where we are at all times, to everything we write or are interested in. It’s like we all have a newspaper reporter living with us constantly telling the world what is going on with John Doe. And, because this is such valuable data—can you believe how wealthy Google is? —the political effort required to change this surveillance capitalism is unbelievable.

Here are just a few ideas:

Make it a felony not to report a ransomware attack. Of course, many firms are too embarrassed and pay the money to keep the quiet.

Symmetry. Allow the public to use the same digital tools to investigate what the insurers and hospitals and drug firms and government agencies are doing. In other words enlarge the reporting requirements of, say, insurers, to include details of their salary structures, what is done with all their data, to whom it is sold, kickbacks from PBMs and GPOs…get as much data from them as is gotten from the patient and other providers. We need not only an EHR, but an Electronic Stakeholder Report, an ESR—from insurers, hospitals, drug firms, government agencies.

Allow the legal sector full access to what is going on in all these sectors of the economy.

Very severe penalties have to be applied to hackers and ransomware attackers and to firms that sell patient data without sharing these profits with the patient. Congress has to do lots of work here.

Once, say, employers find how useful it is to know what is in an EHR pertaining to a potential future employee, there is going to be massive sales of this data…What is his BMI?, does he have back pain? , does he have diabetes or hypertension? Employers can save fortunes by hiring only healthy people. All these systems of screwing with the health data are just beginning and we desperately need to abort this nefarious future.