When complaining about your job becomes a privacy violation

[Fluffy]

When Complaining About Your Job Becomes a Privacy Violation

December 04, 2008 | 10:02:33 PM
By Kim Zetter

A woman in Pennsylvania likely thought she was just complaining about her job in the way that millions of people do every day.

But Stephanie Sicilia, who works for an OB/GYN, has placed herself and her employer in jeopardy of hefty fines and even imprisonment after she allegedly complained about patients on her MySpace page.

The MySpace posts didn't mention patients by name, but at least one patient said she recognized the identity of a patient who was described in a post as having an abortion. The posts could be considered violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA)
Penalties for violating HIPAA vary, depending on the nature of the violation. A common penalty is a fine of up to $50,000 and/or a year in prison.

In addition to mentioning the abortion, one MySpace post allegedly complained that "Today is straight from hell!! I had enough yelling, swearing, bleeding, crying (expletive)." A second post ridiculed a patient for asking her doctor about gingerbread cookies that he'd recommended for nausea. The post asserted that, "Some women shouldn't reproduce."

A local TV station has a video report showing the MySpace page.

When Complaining About Your Job Becomes a Privacy Violation | Threat Level from Wired.com

[celeb_2006]

Come on now, people should know better nowadays than to post anything remotely personal or can be construed as potentially bad consequences on sites like myspace and facebook. I heard even employers and schools look at these sites to gauge the character of potential applicants.

I never post anything of that nature on anything public like the internet.

[buttmunch]

I agree with what you're saying but I also wonder who the hell was searching for this in the first place. I'm not on any social networking sites so don't know if you can make them private but if you can you should.

[Grimmlok]

This is why i don't have any 'social networking' sites.

[buttmunch]

Neither do I. I suppose someone could, if they really tried, figure out who I was from my online behavior but at the end of the day I don't actually give a shit. I am who I am, I say what I want and fuck 'em if they don't like it. Thank god I work for myself.