The Ethical Issues Surrounding Sections 175-178 of the UK's Data Protection Bill

Background

According to medConfidential (2017a), who are based in the UK and specialise in patient data confidentiality, the company has voiced their concerns about the latest developments; they claim that the Government is attempting to push the bill through parliament without giving the general public enough of a voice on the matter. They make this claim as they believe that the Government are not leaving the proposed changes open for discussion amongst citizens.

medConfidential (2017b), have claimed that patients should be able to trust their health provider with their private data and be entitled to access it on request. They also claim that patients should be entitled to view an online report which gives them information on where and why their data ended up where it did. According to Macaulay (2018), if the bill is enacted, it will enable the Government to take control of citizens’ data and use the data as they deem appropriate. Macauley (2018), also states that if the claims that are being made by critics of the bill are correct, then the UK Government may be trying to pass legislation that is ethically flawed as the bill could give the Government the power to judge the ethical use of public sector data without any legal governance or oversight.