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220090 tn?1379167187

A questoin for medhelp about trackers

Is the primary purpose of trackers to help members keep track of things or is it to gather data to be sold to the medical industry?  

I don't think it is a bad thing if the data is being gathered and I would enter my data even if that were the case as long as it is anonymous.  But, is there a public policy about the data?

Thanks
Eric
10 Responses
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220090 tn?1379167187
Thank you for the response.
Helpful - 0
10947 tn?1281404252
That's a great question and one that we address in our new Privacy Policy. The overall gist is that one day we may aggregate the data from your trackers and we reserve the right to sell the AGGREGATED data. That data will absolutely NOT include any information that could identify who you are.

So rest assured, you're not going to get a phone call from someone trying to sell you something because you entered data into your tracker. Hope that helps!

We also don't monitor all the forums for questions or concerns like this. If you have any other concerns, please feel free to send us an email through the Contact Us form. There's a link at the bottom of every page. Or if you have a suggestion, leave us a comment in the Suggestions forum.

-MedHelp

Helpful - 0
217229 tn?1192762404
Personally - I wish they tracked massive side effects both pre - during and post TX.

I think that would be a helpful thing to ANY medical company.

Meki
Helpful - 0
220090 tn?1379167187
I am curious to see if medhelp is collecting the data and selling it.  High quality medical data is hard to some by.  I don't really care if they are as long as it is anonymous.  I am just curious.

Eric
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
This is what Eric is talking about;  (and not to be confused with the "notify" or watch this thread function)- Willy
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http://www.medhelp.org/posts/show/528937

We're pleased to announce the Hepatitis C tracker, the next in a series of Personal Health Applications (PHAs) geared towards helping our members with keep track of their health metrics, symptoms, treatments, test results and events. We developed the Hepatitis C tracker with feedback from several of the members from this community and we're excited to be able to make it available. The tracker will allow you to keep track of your daily treatments and symptoms specific to Hepatitis C.

You can access the Hepatitis C Tracker by clicking on the "Trackers" link at the top of the community, or on the "Trackers" tab on My MedHelp.

We plan on adding more functionality to the Hepatitis C Tracker over the next few weeks and would love to get your suggestions and feedback. If you want to track a specific treatment or event, let us know. Please post your comments in the MedHelp Suggestions community, accessible via My Shortcuts.

MedHelp
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I saw something like this first time on a HIV site; AIDSMeds.  They essentially allow people to keep track of their meds, medical records, weight, calories; all sorts of things.  Is it private?  Yes, and no (I'd suppose).  Most of us can't access other peoples records but I would venture that certain people/agencies can.  Homeland Security can access anything, The IRS and other branches can in certain circumstances and as you go down the food chain some forums could even sell access to the records to other information gathering agencies (headhunters, employment or as you suggest people who are affiliated with trends perhaps more than people).  I'm not saying that's happening here.   I'm only saying that if they don't tell you I wouldn't assume that it's completely private.  Even then I doubt it.  I know that sounds a little paranoid, but think about the medical records for famous people that have been accessed lately.  Think about Obama's tax records being viewed by people within the IRS.  Think about credit card records being hacked.

It's another question if anybody cares.  Most of us nobody cares a feather or a fig about.  ; )

Willy
Helpful - 0
476246 tn?1418870914
the viral load goes by millions, so you would have to put a 5 in for 5 million, a .5 for 500.000, etc....

Marcia
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Eric,

It totally confuses me because I don't know how to convert my viral loads into a format that it will accept.  When you try to put in 5 million copies, it rejects it, which I actually started out as over 5 million copies.  So, I was basically just doing guess work on it.

Susan400
Helpful - 0
220090 tn?1379167187
Click the tracker button on the top right of the forum screen and you will see the feature I am talking about.  It allows you to keep track of your vital stats.
Best,
Eric
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
To the best of my knowlege it is simply a feature which makes this forum more attractive and user friendly.  If a person is in a thread where they either want to observe any updated posts you'll get an e-mail update even if someone replies to a thread after a month or a year.  I just placed one for someone who has a health issue and I want to get updates on what's going on with them.  Sometimes things might otherwise slide past us unnoticed especially if we aren't here obsessively checking the board.  Maybe it allows us to "have a life" ........or at least part of one.  : )

Personally many of this type thread might not be that useful if people were trying to mine data from them.  What kind of "tag" would you attribute to it?  There was an old post by a member that intrigued me.  They mentioned that depending on the thread you clicked on you might get accompanying ads on the side.  For instance in a milk thistle thread you might also see MT accompanying ads on the side of the page or alternative type google ads.

I sometimes smile for that reason when I see certain ads on the side of threads or people profile page and wonder if there is any significance to the ads on the side.  Now watch the forum spam me with IBS and ED advertisements.  In the spirit of scientific inquiry I may have just caused myself to suffer a grave injustice.  ; )

best,
Willy
Helpful - 0
217229 tn?1192762404
Wow - interesting question and point.

My concern is if they were collecting for data --- then how many people are actually "telling the truth"...

Yanno?

I'd hate to have skewed data on there being used for serious purposes.

Meki
PS. love ya!

Helpful - 0
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