Speaking of governments supplying examples of the Iron Law of Data Collection, one of the US Government’s most notorious abusers of data collection and constitutional protections whose TLA is not NSA, has stepped up to provide yet another example. The DEA believes that they can better protect us from drug abuse by abusing our privacy and civil liberties.
In a recent RFP, the DEA expresses an interest in providing its agents “ ‘unlimited access to patient de-identified data’ on re/filled prescriptions, daily supply, payment type, dosing information and gender, among other characteristics, until at least 2025.” Of course, the “de-identified” patients’ identities would then be easily available through an “administrative” subpoena, a device that the DEA’s Inspector General found the agency has a record of misusing.
Opiate abuse is a serious problem, especially here in the U.S. and a case can be made for tracking its manufacture and distribution. That does not mean, however, that the DEA has a compelling need for the wholesale routing around in the health records of individual citizens. If they have a reasonable suspicion that a citizen has broken the law, they can get a (real not administrative) subpoena from the courts the way that law enforcement agencies are supposed to.
This case is another excellent example of the Iron Law in action. Data originally collected for use by medical personnel was appropriated for use by law enforcement and promptly abused. This RFP is the DEA wanting to abuse the data more efficiently.