Remote home health care technologies: how to ensure privacy? Build it in: Privacy by Design

Current advances in connectivity, sensor technology, computing power and the development of complex algorithms for processing health-related data arepaving the way for the delivery of innovative long-term health care services in thefuture. Such technological developments will, in particular, assist the elderly andinfirm to live independently, at home, for much longer periods. The home is, in factbecoming a locus for health care innovation that may in the future compete with thehospital. However, along with these advances come valid privacy and securityquestions arising from the fact that the data collected and transmitted through thesetechnologies could also allow for individual monitoring as well as unauthorizedaccess to critical diagnostic and other health data