GLOBAL PRIVACY POLICY FRAMEWORKS AND DATA PROTECTION FOR DISADVANTAGED POPULATIONS ON DIGITAL HEALTH PLATFORMS

John Adebayo, University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee

Emerging trends in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have influenced healthcare delivery through the swift development of digital health platforms for health-related services. Nevertheless, these developments have also created significant concerns about protecting personal data among various stakeholders. This study thus examines a comparative analysis of the scope, applicability, and specific provisions in major global privacy policy frameworks for data protection of disadvantaged populations in digital health platforms. While the scope of the disadvantaged populations is restricted to Africa's elderly people and people with disabilities, the study examines Contextual Integrity, the Fair Information Practice Principles (FIPPs), the Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Health Equity Framework to establish their strengths and limits in protecting data privacy on digital health platforms. Guided by Social Justice and Contextual Integrity theories, the study employs a mixed-method approach to identify gaps in current data privacy protection policies in digital health services. The expected findings seek to enhance trust and transparency on digital health platforms by providing sustainable recommendations for technology designers, digital healthcare providers, and policymakers in designing comprehensive privacy frameworks that promote fairness by ensuring the data protection rights of disadvantaged populations.

Keywords: Inequality, Disadvantage and Discrimination, The Demography of Indigenous Populations, Population Policies, Digital and computational demography

See extended abstract.