Here's a good example of a HIPAA violation.

In cases when a perpetrator has been caught red-handed committing a crime, journalists won't print the a photo or the name of the accused criminal because of their "rights".

Yet someone who is simply unaccounted for has his name, address, photo, and Personal Health Information published here on the internet, where it will stay forever.

If I were him, I would file a HIPAA complaint against the police department for making it "news" and the newspaper for printing it. But since we know about his medical condition, he may not be able to.

What needs to happen right now is a retraction of the PHI and address and name of the individual, removal of his photo, and an apology at the bottom of the article. It's not enough just to "ghost" it here. It's EVERYWHERE now.

Disagree with the above postings. In a caring community where we're looking out for each other, background information about the underlying condition leading to having gone missing is these low temps is important for folks on the lookout for the most vulnerable in our community. We got the cellphone alert and were on the lookout in our neighborhood since he went missing not far from where we live. There is an inherent tension between individual privacy and what a helping public needs to know to protect the most vulnerable in our society from hypothermia and elements during winter. The family asked for the public's help, and PA Online made the right decisions to provide that necessary information. If your family decides to withhold and not ask for public help for a vulnerable member of your family, that's their choice.

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