privacy
(SMH) A program in which every school child in Australia would be given an identity number so their academic progress could be tracked through their school life is expected to be announced by the federal government as early as today. The Herald understands the number, to be known as a ''unique student identifier'', will be annexed to the My School program, which publishes the performance of individual schools on the internet. [...] The ''unique student identifier'' is expected to cause controversy and raise privacy concerns. read more
(SMH) THE insurance industry has rejected a call to stop using prospective customers' genetic profiles to raise insurance premiums or deny cover. A similar, voluntary ban in Britain was introduced in 2001 and later extended to at least 2014, but the local industry has refused to follow suit, despite concerns they may be deterring people from potentially life-saving genetic testing. [...] Doctors are increasingly using more specific tests to identify genetic mutations that dramatically increase the risk of cancers. But when insurers sell non-community-rated policies such as life insurance, disability cover and income protection they can demand to see the results of any genetic test. read more
This week we also learn former Nazi helpers IBM are collaborating with the University of Melbourne scanning our "inherited genetic make-ups". Last week you're all supposedly seeing the doctor more, and "one in two men and one in three women" will get cancer in their lifetimes. Added we had the Rudd government wanting to "strip privacy protection from patient records". So we're looking forward to a high tech $100 million DNA surveillance system, doctors with no control over your privacy, and dna insurance companies that won't take your NO, for an answer??? If insurance companies only favour healthy dna clients, isn't this an insider (your body) trading scam? Call us paranoid, but we see a long sort scientific dictatorship falling into place in Australia.
