Heterodox underdetermination: Metaphysical options for discernibility and (non-)entanglement.

Broadly speaking, there are three views on whether Leibniz's Principle of the Identity of Indiscernibles (PII) is violated in the case of similar particles. According to the earliest view, PII is always violated (call this the no discernibility view); according to the more recent weak discernibility view, PII is at least valid in a weak sense. No and weak discernibility have been referred to as orthodoxy. Steven French has argued that although PII is violated, similar particles can still be regarded as individuals, or, alternatively, as non-individuals: French famously concluded therefore that metaphysics is underdetermined by physics. Call this thesis orthodox underdetermination. Most recently, some authors have turned against orthodoxy by arguing that PII is valid in more than a weak sense - call this the new discernibility view, also referred to as heterodoxy. Since heterodoxy is backed up by physical considerations, metaphysics now seems to be determined by physics: physics indicates that PII is valid. In this paper, I argue that with respect to entangled states, there are two ways to establish PII's validity, which yield two different ontological interpretations of entanglement. Therefore, a form of underdetermination returns within the heterodox framework. I argue that heterodox underdetermination deserves some attention, because the two ontological interpretations might yield different explanations of the violation of Bell inequalities.

Recent Amendments to the Australian Privacy Act.

The recently passed Privacy Legislation Amendment (Enforcement and Other Measures) Act 2022 (Cth) introduced important changes to the Australian Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) which increase penalties for serious and repeated interferences with privacy and strengthen the investigative and enforcement powers of the Information Commissioner. The amendments were made subsequent to a number of high profile data breaches and represent the first set of changes to the Privacy Act following the review of the Act commenced by the Attorney-General in October 2020. The submissions made to the review emphasized the need for more effective enforcement mechanisms to increase individuals' control over their personal information and as a form of deterrence. This article reviews the recent amendments to the Privacy Act and explains their effect. It comments upon the relevance of the amendments for health and medical data and other data collected in the context of healthcare, and refers to the Attorney-General's Department's review of the Privacy Act regarding other proposals relating to enforcement which have not as yet been put into effect in legislation.

Privacidad de la información en la investigación social de naturaleza cualitativa: la transición hacia el mundo digital / Privacy of information in qualitative social research: the transition to the digital world / Privacidade da informação na pesquisa social qualitativa: a transição para o mundo digital

Resumen: Este texto aborda el problema de la privacidad de la información en la investigación social de tipo cualitativa que se desarrolla en el contexto del mundo digital. Para ello, se revisa el concepto de privacidad desde una mirada analógica hacia su incorporación en el plano digital con la figura de la privacidad de la información y algunos elementos de la hermenéutica de Gadamer. Primero, se revisa el plano analógico y ético de la privacidad. Luego, se revisa el potencial de la información, la distinción entre información privada y sensible y su aplicabilidad a la investigación social mediante los conceptos de confianza y seguridad. Finalmente se esboza una propuesta para una privacidad renovada que propone rescatar la intersubjetividad que se construye en la relación del participante de la investigación con el investigador.

Abstract: This text addresses the problem of information privacy in qualitative social research developed in the context of the digital world. For this purpose, the concept of privacy is reviewed from an analogical view towards its incorporation in the digital plane with the figure of information privacy and some elements of Gadamer's hermeneutics. First, the analogical and ethical plane of privacy is reviewed. Then, the potential of information, the distinction between private and sensitive information and its applicability to social research through the concepts of trust and security are reviewed. Finally, we outline a proposal for a renewed privacy that proposes to rescue the intersubjectivity that is built in the relationship between the research participant and the researcher.

Resumo: Este texto aborda o problema da privacidade da informação na investigação social qualitativa no contexto do mundo digital. Para o fazer, revê o conceito de privacidade de um ponto de vista analógico para a sua incorporação no plano digital com a figura da privacidade da informação e alguns elementos da hermenêutica de Gadamer. Primeiro, o plano analógico e ético da privacidade é revisto. Em seguida, o potencial da informação, a distinção entre informação privada e informação sensível e a sua aplicabilidade à investigação social através dos conceitos de confiança e segurança são revistos. Finalmente, esboça uma proposta para uma privacidade renovada que se propõe resgatar a intersubjetividade que é construída na relação entre o participante da pesquisa e o pesquisador.

Preserving Privacy when Querying OMOP CDM Databases.

Anonymisation is currently one of the biggest challenges when sharing sensitive personal information. Its importance depends largely on the application domain, but when dealing with health information, this becomes a more serious issue. A simpler approach to avoid inadequate disclosure is to ensure that all data that can be associated directly with an individual is removed from the original dataset. However, some studies have shown that simple anonymisation procedures can sometimes be reverted using specific patients' characteristics. In this work, we propose a secure architecture to share information from distributed databases without compromising the subjects' privacy. The anonymiser system was validated using the OMOP CDM data schema, which is widely adopted in observational research studies.

New Meanings in the Archive: Privacy, Technological Change and the Status of Sources.

This essay reflects on how technological changes in biomedicine can affect what archival sources are available for historical research. Historians and anthropologists have examined the ways in which old biomedical samples can be made to serve novel scientific purposes, such as when decades-old frozen tissue specimens are analyzed using new genomic techniques. Those uses are also affected by shifting ethical regimes, which affect who can do what with old samples, or whether anything can be done with them at all. Archival collections are subject to similar dynamics, as institutional change and shifts in ethical guidelines and privacy laws affect which sources can be accessed and which are closed. I witnessed just such a change during my research into human genetics using archives in the Wellcome Collection. A few years into my project, those archives had their privacy conditions reassessed, and I saw how some sources previously seen as neutral were now understood to contain personal sensitive information. This paper describes the conditions of this shift-including the effects of technological change, new ethical considerations, and changing laws around privacy. I reflect on how these affected my understanding of the history of human genetics, and how I and others might narrate it.

The surprising power of a click requirement: How click requirements and warnings affect users' willingness to disclose personal information.

What kinds of information and alerts might cause internet users to be more cautious about what they reveal online? We used a 25-item survey to determine whether the strength of Terms of Service (TOS) warnings and the inclusion of a click requirement affect people's willingness to admit to engaging in inappropriate behaviors. A racially and ethnically diverse group of 1,500 people participated in the study; 98.3% were from the US and India and the remainder from 18 other countries. Participants were randomly assigned to five different groups in which warnings and click requirements varied. In the control condition, no warning was provided. In the four experimental groups, two factors were varied in a 2 × 2 factorial design: strength of warning and click requirement. We found that strong warnings were more effective than weak warnings in decreasing personal disclosures and that click requirements added to the deterrent power of both strong and weak warnings. We also found that a commonly used TOS warning has no impact on disclosures. Participants in the control group provided 32.8% more information than participants in the two click requirement groups combined and 24.3% more information than participants in the four experimental groups combined. The pattern according to which people dropped out of the five different groups sheds further light on the surprising power of the click requirement, as well as on the importance of tracking attrition in online studies.

The Disclosure of Personally Identifiable Information in Studies of Neighborhood Contexts and Patient Outcomes.

Clinical epidemiology and patient-oriented health care research that incorporates neighborhood-level data is becoming increasingly common. A key step in conducting this research is converting patient address data to longitude and latitude data, a process known as geocoding. Several commonly used approaches to geocoding (eg, ggmap or the tidygeocoder R package) send patient addresses over the internet to web-based third-party geocoding services. Here, we describe how these approaches to geocoding disclose patients' personally identifiable information (PII) and how the subsequent publication of the research findings discloses the same patients' protected health information (PHI). We explain how these disclosures can occur and recommend strategies to maintain patient privacy when studying neighborhood effects on patient outcomes.

Data protection, data management, and data sharing: Stakeholder perspectives on the protection of personal health information in South Africa.

The Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) 2013 came into force in South Africa on 1 July 2020. It seeks to strengthen the processing of personal information, including health information. While POPIA is to be welcomed, there are concerns about the impact it will have on the processing of health information. To ensure that the National Health Laboratory Service [NHLS] is compliant with these new strict processing requirements and that compliance does not negatively impact upon its current screening, treatment, surveillance and research mandate, it was decided to consider the development of a NHLS POPIA Code of Conduct for Personal Health. As part of the process of developing such a Code and better understand the challenges faced in the processing of personal health information in South Africa, 19 semi-structured interviews with stakeholders were conducted between June and September 2020. Overall, respondents welcomed the introduction of POPIA. However, they felt that there are tensions between the strengthening of data protection and the use of personal information for individual patient care, treatment programmes, and research. Respondents reported a need to rethink the management of personal health information in South Africa and identified 5 issues needing to be addressed at a national and an institutional level: an understanding of the importance of personal information; an understanding of POPIA and data protection; improve data quality; improve transparency in data use; and improve accountability in data use. The application of POPIA to the processing of personal health information is challenging, complex, and likely costly. However, personal health information must be appropriately managed to ensure the privacy of the data subject is protected, but equally that it is used as a resource in the individual's and wider public interest.

Privacy nudges for disclosure of personal information: A systematic literature review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: Digital nudging has been mooted as a tool to alter user privacy behavior. However, empirical studies on digital nudging have yielded divergent results: while some studies found nudging to be highly effective, other studies found no such effects. Furthermore, previous studies employed a wide range of digital nudges, making it difficult to discern the effectiveness of digital nudging. To address these issues, we performed a systematic review of empirical studies on digital nudging and information disclosure as a specific privacy behavior. METHOD: The search was conducted in five digital libraries and databases: Scopus, Google Scholar, ACM Digital Library, Web of Science, and Science Direct for peer-reviewed papers published in English after 2006, examining the effects of various nudging strategies on disclosure of personal information online. RESULTS: The review unveiled 78 papers that employed four categories of nudge interventions: presentation, information, defaults, and incentives, either individually or in combination. A meta-analysis on a subset of papers with available data (n = 54) revealed a significant small-to-medium sized effect of the nudge interventions on disclosure (Hedges' g = 0.32). There was significant variation in the effectiveness of nudging (I2 = 89%), which was partially accounted for by interventions to increase disclosure being more effective than interventions to reduce disclosure. No evidence was found for differences in the effectiveness of nudging with presentation, information, defaults, and incentives interventions. CONCLUSION: Identifying ways to nudge users into making more informed and desirable privacy decisions is of significant practical and policy value. There is a growing interest in digital privacy nudges for disclosure of personal information, with most empirical papers focusing on nudging with presentation. Further research is needed to elucidate the relative effectiveness of different intervention strategies and how nudges can confound one another.

Plasma Proteomes Can Be Reidentifiable and Potentially Contain Personally Sensitive and Incidental Findings.

The goal of clinical proteomics is to identify, quantify, and characterize proteins in body fluids or tissue to assist diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of patients. In this way, it is similar to more mature omics technologies, such as genomics, that are increasingly applied in biomedicine. We argue that, similar to those fields, proteomics also faces ethical issues related to the kinds of information that is inherently obtained through sample measurement, although their acquisition was not the primary purpose. Specifically, we demonstrate the potential to identify individuals both by their characteristic, individual-specific protein levels and by variant peptides reporting on coding single nucleotide polymorphisms. Furthermore, it is in the nature of blood plasma proteomics profiling that it broadly reports on the health status of an individual-beyond the disease under investigation. Finally, we show that private and potentially sensitive information, such as ethnicity and pregnancy status, can increasingly be derived from proteomics data. Although this is potentially valuable not only to the individual, but also for biomedical research, it raises ethical questions similar to the incidental findings obtained through other omics technologies. We here introduce the necessity of-and argue for the desirability for-ethical and human-rights-related issues to be discussed within the proteomics community. Those thoughts are more fully developed in our accompanying manuscript. Appreciation and discussion of ethical aspects of proteomic research will allow for deeper, better-informed, more diverse, and, most importantly, wiser guidelines for clinical proteomics.

Cambios en la ergonomía en tiempos de COVID-19 en estudiantes de una universidad Peruana / Changes in ergonomics in times of COVID-19 in students of a Peruvian university

La enfermedad por COVID-19 ha traído consigo cambios que forman parte de la nueva normalidad. Muchos de estos cambios podrían repercutir de mala manera en la población y traer enfermedades o riesgo de comorbilidades como diabetes, estrés, obesidad o problemas ergonómicos. El presente estudio tuvo como objetivo evaluar los factores asociados a la ergonomía en estudiantes universitarios durante el contexto de clases virtuales en Lima, Perú debido a la COVID-19. Se realizó una encuesta virtual mediante la plataforma de Google Forms, a 121 estudiantes del primer ciclo en una universidad limeña. La encuesta contenía preguntas sobre los cambios ergonómicos percibidos durante las clases virtuales debido a la COVID-19. Respecto al peso, 43.85 % presentó variación, mientras que el 44,6% reportó que no. Sobre las molestias corporales y visuales el 83.5 % presentaron dolores musculares, mientras que el 16.5 % no tenían estas molestias. Entre estos prevalecían el dolor de espalda, cuello, cintura, hombros y piernas. Por otro lado, el 78.5 % presentaban incomodidad visual, mientras que el otro 21.5 % no lo presentó. Entre las molestias visuales más frecuentes estaban ardor, picazón, sensación de ojo seco, cansancio de la vista y lagrimeo durante las clases. El dispositivo más usado por los estudiantes para las clases virtuales fue la laptop (81 %). Respecto a los ejercicios físicos, el 46,3 % sí lo realizaban terminada las clases, y los estiramientos un 62.8 %. Igualmente, se evaluó la ingesta de líquidos, frutas y comida chatarra. De los encuestados, un 52.9 % no varió su ingesta de líquidos, el 60.3 % no varió el de frutas, y el 48.8 % disminuyó la ingesta de comida chatarra. Los problemas ergonómicos que se evaluaron, podrían estar relacionados con los altos periodos de tiempo que los estudiantes se exponen al uso de los equipos electrónicos debido a las clases virtuales y también al no tener un lugar fijo de estudio, por lo que se debería realizar otras actividades adicionales como hacer ejercicio y/o estiramientos después de clase, además de ingerir más frutas, líquidos y mantener un estilo de vida saludable.

The increasing attention that is given to the protection of health professionals and patients has stimulated researchers and organizations to create alternatives to improve safety practices in health services, including in the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) environment. However, this theme still needs to be further explored in the MRI field. This paper aims to review the current literature, explore the approach to the MRI Safety Supervisor, to describe the role of the MRI Safety Supervisor and how it could serve as an agent to enhance the safety of health professionals and patients in the MRI environment. To achieve this, a narrative literature review was carried out in the electronic databases: ScienceDirect, PubMed, Scielo and Google Scholar, using as inclusion criteria, articles published in Portuguese and English between the years 2008 to 2019. The articles were filtered according to relevant aspects, such as authorship, title, year of publication, objectives, methodology and main results. Lastly, it considered aspects related to adverse events, international and national regulations on security and safety management in the MRI sector. Nevertheless, in the search for actions that effectively mitigate risks on this modality, it was observed that studies on the MRI Safety Supervisor are scarce, which reinforce the need for further studies on this matter.

Do You Know Who Is Talking to Your Wearable Smartband?

We study seven fitness trackers and their associated smartphone apps from a wide variety of manufacturers, and record who they are talking to. Our results suggest that some of them communicate with unexpected third parties, including social networks, advertisement websites, weather services, and various external APIs. This implies that such unanticipated third-parties may glean personal information of users.

El derecho a la protección de datos personales, tecnologías digitales y pandemia por COVID-19 en Colombia / The right to personal data protection, digital technologies and the pandemic for COVID-19 in Colombia / El dret a la protecció de dades personals, tecnologies digitals I pandèmia per COVID-19 a Colòmbia

La pandemia COVID-19 ha generado impactos sociales y políticos adicionales a los estrictamente sanitarios, llevando de un aparte a que los países, en el contexto de los estados de emergencia decretados, limiten de manera temporal algunos derechos y libertades civiles, para preservar la vida y salud de los ciudadanos; y de otra parte, han acelerado la transformación digital con el desarrollo y uso de herramientas tecnológicas para complementar las medidas de salud pública. Diversos organismos internacionales han expresado su preocupación respecto a la vulneración del derecho a la protección de datos personales en este nuevo escenario, e incluso han propuesto lineamientos éticos a tener en cuenta. En este artículo se analizarán las medidas que han sido implementadas en Colombia con ocasión de la COVID-19, desde la perspectiva del marco jurídico del derecho a la protección de datos personales vigente, y como los principios y derechos que lo componen, pueden ser reinterpretados a la luz de estas nuevas recomendaciones éticas

COVID-19 pandemic has generated additional social and political impacts beyond those strictly related to health, leading countries to, within the context of declared states of emergency, temporarily limit some civil rights and liberties in order to preserve their citizen's life and health. On the other hand, it has accelerated the digital transformation with the development and use of technological tools to complement public health measures. Several international organizations have voiced their concern about the violation of the right to personal data protection in this new scenario and have even proposed ethical guidelines to be taken into account. This article will analyses the measures that have been implemented in Colombia during COVID-19 pandemic, from the actual perspective of the legal framework of the right to personal data protection, and how its principles and rights may be reinterpreted in the light of these new ethical recommendations

La pandèmia COVID-19 ha generat impactes socials I polítics addicionals als estrictament sanitaris, portant d'un a part al fet que els països, en el context dels estats d'emergència decretats, limitin de manera temporal alguns drets I llibertats civils, per preservar la vida I salut dels ciutadans; I d'una altra banda, accelerant la transformació digital amb el desenvolupament I l'ús d'eines tecnològiques per complementar les mesures de salut pública. Diversos organismes internacionals han expressat la seva preocupació pel que fa a la vulneració del dret a la protecció de dades personals en aquest nou escenari, I fins I tot han proposat directrius ètiques a tenir en compte. En aquest article s'analitzaran les mesures que han estat implementades a Colòmbia amb motiu de la COVID-19, des de la perspectiva del marc jurídic del dret a la protecció de dades personals vigent, I com els principis I drets que el componen, poden ser reinterpretats a la llum d'aquestes noves recomanacions ètiques

Disentangled Adversarial Transfer Learning for Physiological Biosignals.

Recent developments in wearable sensors demonstrate promising results for monitoring physiological status in effective and comfortable ways. One major challenge of physiological status assessment is the problem of transfer learning caused by the domain inconsistency of biosignals across users or different recording sessions from the same user. We propose an adversarial inference approach for transfer learning to extract disentangled nuisance-robust representations from physiological biosignal data in stress status level assessment. We exploit the trade-off between task-related features and person-discriminative information by using both an adversary network and a nuisance network to jointly manipulate and disentangle the learned latent representations by the encoder, which are then input to a discriminative classifier. Results on cross-subjects transfer evaluations demonstrate the benefits of the proposed adversarial framework, and thus show its capabilities to adapt to a broader range of subjects. Finally we highlight that our proposed adversarial transfer learning approach is also applicable to other deep feature learning frameworks.

Representation and Interpretation of Genetic Analysis: A Strategy of Development for the Personal Genetics Card Information System.

In this paper, we describe a strategy for the development of a genetic analysis comprehensive representation. The primary intention is to ensure the available utilization of genetic analysis results in clinical practice. The system is called Personnel Genetic Card (PGC), and it is developed in cooperation of CIIRC CTU in Prague and the Mediware company. Nowadays, genetic information is more and more part of medicine and life quality services (e.g. nutritional consulting). Therefore, there is necessary to bind genetic information with the clinical phenotype, such as drug metabolism or intolerance to various substances. We proposed a structured form of the record, where we utilize the LOINC® standard to identify genetic test parameters, and several terminology databases for representing specific genetic information (e.g. HGNC, NCBI RefSeq, NCBI dbNSP, HGVS). Further, there are also several knowledge databases (PharmGKB, SNPedia, ClinVar) that collect interpretation for genetic analysis results. In the results of this paper, we describe our idea in the structure and process perspective. The structural perspective includes the representation of the analysis record and its binding with the interpretations. The process perspective describes roles and activities within the PGC system use.

Directiva administrativa que establece el tratamiento de los datos personales relacionados con la salud o datos personales en salud / Administrative directive that establishes the treatment of personal data related to health or personal data in health

El documento contiene los criterios administrativos para el adecuado tratamiento de los datos personales relacionados con la salud o datos personales en salud.

Providing personal information to the benefit of others.

Personal information is a precious resource, not only for commercial interests but also for the public benefit. Reporting personal location data, for example, may aid efficient traffic flows and sharing one's health status may be a crucial instrument of disease management. We experimentally study individuals' willingness to contribute personal information to information-based public goods. Our data provide evidence that-compared to monetary contributions to public goods-information may be substantially under-provided. We show that the degree of information provision is strongly correlated to the information's implicit (emotional and cognitive) costs. Individual's reluctance to share personal information with high implicit, in particular emotional costs, may seriously limit the effectiveness of information-based public goods.