Privacy is the right to be left alone, free from undue intrusions and scrutiny. Privacy is an important part of freedom and liberty.

• Right to control your own body
• Right to be free from unreasonable governmental searches and seizures
• Right to your own identity
• Right to control information about yourself
• Right to know information about oneself
• Right to know what it is that others know
• Right not to know (such as medical diagnoses, prognoses, genetics)
• Right to prevent others, even family members or partners, from knowing
• Right to continuation of informational privacy even after death.

What is Confidentiality?

Confidentiality is the concept of keeping information in confidence. While popular discussions use the terms privacy and confidentiality interchangeably, separate laws govern them.

Mechanisms for the Protection of Privacy

Constitutional law - Constitutional Law only applies to the government’s ability to do and not do certain things. In the main this type of law prevents the government from interfering with a person’s ability to receive or be rejected for medical treatment, procreation, contraception and abortion

Tort law - In the privacy context it prevents invasion of privacy due to (1) appropriation of name or likeness (using a celebrity picture to advertise something without permission), (2) portraying someone in false light (an example would be using a taxi drivers picture to illustrate drivers who cheat the public when the person pictured had done no such thing.) (3) Unreasonable intrusion upon seclusion (publishing a picture and article on an ill person when they decline to be interviewed and photographed), and (4) public disclosure of private facts (a hardware merchant has his or her extramarital affair publicized when it is of no interest to the general public

President Clinton’s 2000 Executive Order - This order also applies to federal employees. The order prohibits federal employers from requiring genetic testing as a condition for being hired, receiving benefits, or for evaluating an employee’s ability to perform job functions, or deprive an employee of advancement opportunities.

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) - ADA prohibits discrimination against a person whether the disability is hidden or apparent. Employers cannot discriminate unless the disability affects job performance.

Limitations of ADA

1. ADA does not protect job applicants from employer requests to provide medical information, including genetic information after an offer of employment has been made. Many jobs are contingent upon successful completion of a medical examination.

2. ADA does not regulate whether an employer can access private medical information, but only regulates when the employer can access medical information, and how that employer can use that information. Once the employer has the information, the ADA does not protect against disclosure of that information.

3. ADA also does not protect employees from voluntary disclosures about an applicant’s medical condition by the applicant or the applicant’s references.

4. ADA does not protect employees from employer requests for medical information related to the employee’s ability to perform job functions.