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RE: Why such controversy over prank?
December 10, 2012 at 2:28 am
No, Germans. Sorry, dude, but that is not identity theft. You are misinterpreting that crime, big time. Impersonating a person to commit a prank is not impersonating a person for financial, medical care or other legally fraudulent means. Seriously. If what you describe was identity theft, every fucking comedian who ever did an impersonation would be guilty.
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RE: Why such controversy over prank?
December 10, 2012 at 2:32 am
The nhs link is the importent one.
medical files are classefied and can therefor not be accessed without the patients concent.
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RE: Why such controversy over prank?
December 10, 2012 at 2:53 am
Unfortunately, that is discussing documents, not hearsay from a nurse. Those are two very different things, as with one, it is a document containing information as personal as tax identification numbers, addresses and phone numbers. It's not illegal to my knowledge. It doesn't even fall under doctor patient confidentiality.
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RE: Why such controversy over prank?
December 10, 2012 at 3:49 am
The nurses are not doctors, firstly. At most, to my knowledge, they would be in trouble at work, which they were not in this case. Secondly, doctor patient confidentiality is more a protection against a doctor testifying against a patient in court. This is to make it so people are not afraid to seek medical care in the case of a crime, such as heroin overdose. Thirdly, there could be laws against disclosing information, and I would be surprised if there were not, but there are no charges being pressed. Also, this would be an international crime, so it would have to be an international law. By calling the UK, they are not under UK law.
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RE: Why such controversy over prank?
December 10, 2012 at 4:10 am
nurses still fall under patient doctor confidentiality. It doesn`t matter who you are - you could somehow find a persons medical file at random - you can still not legaly tell anyone what is in there.
nope, the confidentiality is not simply about doctor testifying in court, it also prevents things like a therapist telling random people about your problems, or a doctor selling your file to a pharmer company so they can add your file into a calculation of customor behavior, or a doctor giving privat details from a celebrety to a tabloid.
Every heard of a thing called. "Right to privacy"?
I am suprised that there are currently no charges, but considering the recent release of the leverson report there could very likely be one.
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RE: Why such controversy over prank?
December 10, 2012 at 5:03 am
Of course you can tell people if you find it at random. Information is free, and can't be "protected" the way you think it can Germans. If you find someone's medical file at random, you can publish it, do whatever you want with the information - so long as you didn't acquire it illegally.