Deconstructing HIPAA (very briefly)

So, Jenny and I had an interesting discussion about HIPAA tonight, which started as a question of how I was going to anonymize all of my lovely field data.

HIPAA, which stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which is a regulation that dictates certain personal health information should not be communicated or otherwise disclosed. In layman's terms, this is the rule that says doctors and nurses can't talk about you or your condition outside of the immediate sphere of your care.

So let's deconstruct HIPAA and the idea of privacy for a sec, keeping in mind that all of this is an intellectual exercise. What if health information wasn't private? Well, if your boss found out that you're pregnant, or have HIV, or some other health issue, they *may* find any excuse to fire you. Does this mean that they should? Does HIPAA, in this case, reinforce harmful social norms and assumptions?

Then again, we live in the real world. We necessarily need HIPAA to protect us against the discrimination and prejudices that exist. But it's important to be aware of the norms HIPAA maintains and furthers, while also accepting it as a necessary tool to protect vulnerable individuals within the reality in which we live.