Google Violates Privacy Laws? Makes Up Their Own?

While checking my email I saw a message from Angie's List, of which I am an infrequent, nearly non-participating member. The message requested me to evaluate my visit with a doctor I had visited once, last year, at the request of Social Security.

Flabberghasted, I was perplexed at how Angie's List would appear to know I had completed an appointment with a local doctor about 5 months ago. I had Googled the doctor's name in order to obtain information including his office's phone number and address, but I had absolutely no online communication with his office. I do not recall having communicated with Social Security online. My mode of communication with them was via phone and mail.

I use Google quite a bit for research. I've probably google the names of hundreds, even thousands of entities every year. Having joined Angie's List early on, I hardly pay more than 14 dollars a year for membership. ( I find it useful for researching info about home maintenance. ) A couple of years ago I submitted a couple of reviews about my GP and a specialist. But these doctors have NO relationship to the Social Security employed medical doctor, nor has there ever been any record sharing.

Angie's List could have only 5 sources I can think of to obtain info which led them to ask me 'how did your appointment with Dr. X go?' How do you think they could have known I had an appointment with a doctor?

1. Through me informing Angie's list about my appointment.
*That did not occur.*

2. Through the doctor having contact with Angie's List.
*It's unlikely an MD who takes part time Social Security evaluations for
extra income would report appointments to Angie's List. Most physicians
have nothing to do with 'health grading' websites. Whether this MD tells
Angie's List about his patients I can't know. But I doubt it since
doing so would have been illegal. *

3. Through Social Security having some contact with Angie's List.
*It seems laughably unlikely that Social Security would be giving info to
Angie's List.*

4. Through the legal firm which represented my case.
*Besides myself, Social Security and the physician, only the legal firm
would have information about my case. However, legal firms do not
participate in Angie's list or advertise with them. As with the physician,
an attorney who would give out information about a client would be breaking
the law. *

5. Through my use of Google in researching information about the doctor's
CV, location, and office phone number ?
* This seems the most likely explanation so far. Being a Multiple
Sclerosis patient I have often googled for medical information.
And about 2 months ago I noticed adverts related to MS were
popping up for me all the time . I experienced a disconcerting
sense of being tracked all around the internet, even though I own
a MAC, use Firefox, dump 'cookies' all the time, and clean the cache.*

So, what do you think? I googled 'Google violating privacy laws' and found a suit against Google for violating privacy laws in the USA will begin in March:

http://www.webpronews.com/google-accused-of-violating-your-privacy-again-2012-10

I next googled ' google violating privacy laws HIPAA' and the following popped up:

http://www.google.com/intl/en_us/health/hipaa.html

Excerpt:

Google Health and HIPAA

Unlike a doctor or health plan, Google Health is not regulated by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), a federal law that establishes data confidentiality standards for patient health information. This is because Google does not store data on behalf of health care providers. Instead, our primary relationship is with the user. Under HIPAA, patients have a right to obtain a copy of their medical records. If they choose to use Google Health, we'll help them store and manage their medical records online.

Although Google Health is not covered by HIPAA, we are committed to user privacy and have in place strict data security policies and measures, and ensure that users control access to their information. We let users know what information we collect when they use Google Health, how we use it, and how we keep it safe. Users choose who views or adds information to their profile, and they can revoke access at any time.

There is no advertising in Google Health. We do not sell user health information, and we do not share it with other individuals or services unless a user explicitly authorizes us to do so, or in the limited circumstances described in our privacy policy. A user's personal medical records are stored in their secure account and cannot be accessed by others through a search on Google.com. Also, no personal or medical information stored in a user's Google Health profile is used to customize their Google.com search results.

The information below describes how Google Health's data confidentiality practices compare to those mandated by HIPAA.

For more information on Google Health's privacy practices, see our privacy policy.

Angie's List Sponsors Hate Radio Demagogue Mark Levin

My friend was driving me to the grocery store early this evening. The radio was on FM but we got stuck in a traffic jam so to hear if there was a cause for the jam, we switched to 640 am in Atlanta.

I 'd heard radio demagogue Mark Levin briefly a couple of times. I know an older lady (in NJ) who'd began listening to his garbage back in 2008 or so and has since become frightened beyond reason because of the poisonous propaganda Levin spews.

What my friend and I heard on Levin's 7/13/2012 program was beyond disgusting. Misinforming the undereducated with lies is Levin's M.O..

My friend and I were shocked to hear Angie's list is a sponsor of Levin.

Anyhow, I can't remember the last time I ever felt compelled to write a company about their commercials. BTW, I LIKE Angie's List and have been a contributing member for a few years. I recently wrote a 5* review of the wonderful animal clinic which has treated our pets for 5 years.

Anyhow, here is the letter I just emailed to Angie's list:

Real Men Love Cats

Cool guys who loved domestic felines include Marlon Brando, Albert Einstein and more.

http://www.catster.com/lifestyle/lets-hear-it-for-the-cat-dads

Excerpt:

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Raymond Chandler and Taki:

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Marlon Brando and cat.

Yes, that’s right: A 20th century symbol of everything rebellious and macho, whose sex appeal wafted off the silver screen in movies including The Wild One, had a very big -- and very soft -- spot in his heart for cats, judging from all the photos of Brando with felines of various sizes.

Another site, Writers and Kitties:

http://writersandkitties.tumblr.com/

Hemingway and companion share dinner:

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Hot Coffee: Just When I Was Ready to Cancel HBO

ABC, MSNBC and other big profit making channels don't 'do' investigative journalism or air documentaries which might inform people and shake up people's assumptions.

Today I happened upon a great documentary on one of the HBO channels. Hot Coffee was eye-opening. The Supreme Court's decision by the Supreme Court on the Citizens United case may appear to be a nail in the coffin of Democracy. But there are heroes who are fighting corruption. We should all be grateful to Minnesota for having elected Senator Al Franken.

Watch Hot Coffee on On Demand or online. It is anything but boring. Author John Grisham, among others, appears in the documentary to comment on how corporations are state by state buying judges. It shows how our votes have consequences. And why we need to show up at the polls for issues such as 'Tort Reform'.

About Hot Coffee:

http://www.hotcoffeethemovie.com/Default.asp

Excerpt:

Is Justice Being Served?

Seinfeld mocked it. Letterman ranked it in his top ten list. And more than fifteen years later, its infamy continues. Everyone knows the McDonald’s coffee case. It has been routinely cited as an example of how citizens have taken advantage of America’s legal system, but is that a fair rendition of the facts? Hot Coffee reveals what really happened to Stella Liebeck, the Albuquerque woman who spilled coffee on herself and sued McDonald’s, while exploring how and why the case garnered so much media attention, who funded the effort and to what end. After seeing this film, you will decide who really profited from spilling hot coffee.

Mayan Ruins Unearthed in North Ga

This is a major archaeological discovery. Has anybody visited this area lately?

http://www.examiner.com/architecture-design-in-national/massive-1-100-year-old-maya-site-discovered-georgia-s-mountains


Excerpt:

Archaeological zone 9UN367 at Track Rock Gap, near Georgia’s highest mountain, Brasstown Bald, is a half mile (800 m) square and rises 700 feet (213 m) in elevation up a steep mountainside. Visible are at least 154 stone masonry walls for agricultural terraces, plus evidence of a sophisticated irrigation system and ruins of several other stone structures. Much more may be hidden underground. It is possibly the site of the fabled city of Yupaha, which Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto failed to find in 1540, and certainly one of the most important archaeological discoveries in recent times.

BLAIRSVILLE, GA (December 21, 2011) -- Around the year 800 AD the flourishing Maya civilization of Central America suddenly began a rapid collapse. A series of catastrophic volcanic eruptions were followed by two long periods of extreme drought conditions and unending wars between city states.

Cities and agricultural villages in the fertile, abundantly watered, Maya Highlands were the first to be abandoned. Here, for 16 centuries, Itza Maya farmers produced an abundance of food on mountainside terraces. Their agricultural surpluses made possible the rise of great cities in the Maya Lowlands and Yucatan Peninsula. When the combination of volcanic eruptions, wars and drought erased the abundance of food, famines struck the densely populated Maya Lowlands. Within a century, most of the cities were abandoned. However, some of the cities in the far north were taken over by the Itza Maya and thrived for two more centuries.

Rep. Allen West is a Psycho? Or what? *LOL*

What a waste of a seat in Congress. Who in Florida voted for this clown?

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/199821-rep-west-nazi-goebbels-would-be-very-proud-of-the-democrat-party

Excerpt:

“If Joseph Goebbels was around, he’d be very proud of the Democrat Party, because they have an incredible propaganda machine,” West told reporters in the House, according to multiple reports.

Joseph Goebbels was the head of the Minister of Propaganda in Germany while it was under the control of the Nazi party from 1933 to 1945. The department sought to control public opinion and enforce Nazi Party ideology in Germany prior to and during World War II.

West said the comparison was not between Democrats and Nazis and only applied to the quality of the propaganda.

“You have the president, who has an incredible megaphone and a platform, and he has people all across this country believing that the only people on Capitol Hill are House Republicans. He’s not talking anything about his controlled Senate. So, it’s a great propaganda machine. And I have to give him kudos for being able to leverage that,” West said.

What do we do about 'Hi Y'all' newbie topics?

Received an alert on this. What do we do?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025469