Comment by neurostimulant

4 years ago

My wife is a doctor and received a few of these kind of images in whatsapp from her patients from time to time. Should she be concerned?

15 comments

neurostimulant

Reply
rwalle  4 years ago

Are you located in the US? If so, I would be really concerned, not in this context but about potential violation of HIPPA. All my communication with a doctor's office goes through the "private message" of the office/hospital's website because there are regulations around that. Think about it -- what if she lost her phone and for some reason the phone is unlocked or decrypted by other means?

And even if you are not located in the US, I would recommend that your wife looks up local regulation and considers alternative methods to communicate with patients.

  • neurostimulant  4 years ago

    Not in the US, but her patients, friends or acquaintances sometimes send stuff like this out of the blue. Can't really be avoided since it's unsolicited.

  • LorenPechtel  4 years ago

    I doubt a doctor as the recipient would get in trouble--they have legitimate needs to look at things. And it's not a HIPAA violation if the patient sends it. It's only a HIPAA violation if the doctor sends it insecurely.

doliveira  4 years ago

WhatsApp images are supposed to be E2E-encrypted, aren't they? Not sure about the whole Google Drive backup, though.

  • perryizgr8  4 years ago

    Google photos has a mode that will auto backup all received whatsapp images. In that case she could face the same problem.

tomohawk  4 years ago

Perhaps switch to signal or telegram? Some service that guarantees confidentiality.