Medical device data protection and security

DATA PROTECTION AND
SECURITY
Erik VollebregtRegulanet conference
4 March 2016

Typical end to end configuration
3

Definition of Data in IT
ISO/IEC 2382-1:1993 (Information technology — Vocabulary — Part 1:
Fundamental terms)
Data
‘A reinterpretable representation of information in a formalized manner
suitable for communication, interpretation, or processing.
Data can be processed by humans or by automatic means.’
Information (in information processing)
‘Knowledge concerning objects, such as facts, events, things, processes,
or ideas, including concepts, that within a certain context has a particular
meaning.’
https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#iso:std:iso-iec:2382:-1:ed-3:v1:en

Legal perspective on data?
• No legal definition of ‘data’
• No rights in data (no property or ownership concept)
• Rights and obligations in relation to data
Data law:
• Data regulation (focus on data protection)
• Contracting
• IP rights (copyright, database right)

You want a piece of me?
• Privacy policy
Tell people WHY you want their data, tell them HOW you handle the data
and WHAT you are going to do with it.
• Privacy by design
Make privacy and security part of the development of your products.

Data protection in the EU
European Commission Greenpaper on mHealth: one of the issues “at
stake”: data protection, including security
Current legal framework: Data Protection Directive (95/46/EC)
in flux: General Data Protection Regulation proposal
EU approach: fundamental right (Article 8 European Convention on Human
Rights) -> emphasis on data subject interests

Data processing
Definition of ‘processing’:
‘Any operation or set of operations which is performed upon
personal data, whether or not by automatic means, such as
collection, recording, organization, storage, adaptation or alteration,
retrieval, consultation, use, disclosure by transmission,
dissemination or otherwise making available, alignment or
combination, blocking, erasure or destruction.’ (Data Protection
Directive).

Parties involved in processing
• Controller:
‘The natural or legal person, public authority, agency or any other
body which alone or jointly with others determines the purposes and
means of the processing of personal data’
• Processor:
‘A natural or legal person, public authority, agency or any other
body which processes personal data on behalf of the controller’
• Third party
• Data subject
- Right to access
- Right to correction
- Right to erasure
- Right to objection

Personal data?
Collecting and processing data may give rise to personal data
processing and related obligations.
Personal data: any information relating to an identified or
identifiable natural person ('data subject'); whether directly or
indirectly identifiable.
“data relates to an individual if it refers to the identity, characteristics
or behaviour of an individual or if such information is used to
determine or influence the way in which that person is treated or
evaluated” (WP136)

Data Protection - issues
Informed consent vs. the principle of purpose limitation
• Consent: “…any freely given specific and informed
indication of his wishes by which the data subject
signifies his agreement to personal data relating to
him being processed”. Special data? Explicit consent
(see article 29 WP Opinion 15/2011).
Is the new purpose compatible with original purpose?
No? -> new consent required
• The right to withdraw consent
(data must be deleted if data subject no longer wants its
data to be processed)

Data Protection - issues
Principle of data minimisation vs. collecting as much
data as possible
• Finding a correlation or pattern does not
retrospectively justify obtaining the data in the first
place!
Anonymisation?
• Absolute anonymisation is likely impossible -> focus
on mitigating risks of re-identification
• Pseudonymisation = security measure

Health data
Health data is special category of data - processing prohibited
UNLESS
Explicit consent (likely to be sole legal ground in the future)
OR
Medical treatment exemption:
Processing of the data is required for the purposes of preventive
medicine, medical diagnosis, the provision of care or treatment or
the management of health-care services, and those data are
processed by a health professional subject under national law or
rules established by national competent bodies to the obligation of
professional secrecy or by another person also subject to an
equivalent obligation of secrecy.

Scope of ‘health data’?
European Court of Justice in Case C-101/01 (Lindqvist):
‘In the light of the purpose of the directive, the expression “data
concerning health” used in Article 8(1) thereof must be given a wide
interpretation so as to include information concerning all aspects,
both physical and mental, of the health of an individual.’
Letter of WP29 of 5 February 2015 on data collected by mHealth
apps. Health data includes:
• Medical data: ‘data about the physical or mental health status of
a data subject (…) generated in a professional, medical context
• Health related data used in an administrative context
(information to public entities)
• Data about the purchase of medical products and services
provided that the health status can be determined

Future scope of ‘health data’
The scope will be wider as it will include any information about
‘disease risk’.
WP29: ‘disease risk’ refers to
• Data concerning the potential future health status
• Data, which may not necessarily be health data, with the purpose
of identifying disease risks (medical research, using big data)
Whether the device or software is a medical device or not is not
relevant for the qualification ‘health data’!
• Combination of data aimed to infer health status or health risk?
-> health data
• Conclusion about person’s health status or health risk?
Conclusion = health data

Data protection:
health data case
study
• Performance data becomes health data

Data transfer outside EU & security
• Surveillance practices (PRISM)
Safe harbor for transfer to US?
Safe Harbor Certification merely means that the transfer of personal
data to the US is allowed in principle because it demonstrates the
adequacy of the US as jurisdiction
• Facebook case invalidates Safe Harbor transfer mechanism
• Alternatives:
• Data transfer agreement based on European
Commission’s standard contractual clauses
• Binding corporate rules blessed by a DPA
• “Privacy Shield” still not up and running

Data transfer outside EU &
security
18

General Data Protection Regulation
The current EU system is:
• Fragmented
• Outdated
• Unclear
Proposal for a new framework:
The General Data Protection Regulation.
• Regulation: direct effect in
member states (no national
legislation)
In force? 2017?

GDPR
• Informed consent and burden of proof it was obtained
• Privacy by design – software & devices have to be designed
and built as to enable GDPR and data subject’s rights by default
• High fines (up to 5% annual WW turnover)
• Privacy officers mandatory for large companies
• Privacy impact assessment mandatory for each act of
processing
Extraterritorial jurisdiction:
• Data controller or processor established in the EU, whether the
processing takes place in the Union or not
• Data controller or processor not established in the EU, if
processing is related to:
• Offering goods or services to data subjects in the Union
• Monitoring of data subjects in the Union

GDPR – important definitions
• Article 4 (10) 'genetic data’
“all data, of whatever type, concerning the characteristics of an
individual which are inherited or acquired during early prenatal
development”
• Article 4 (12) ‘data concerning health’
“any information which relates to the physical or mental health of
an individual, or to the provision of health services to the
individual”
Clarification is needed around ‘genetic data’ and ‘data concerning
health’ to ensure that these definitions are only intended to apply to
personal data that falls within these categories, rather than all related
data.
| 21

GDPR – processing of personal
data
Processing of genetic data or data concerning health (article 9)
• only with consent; OR
• processing of data concerning health is necessary for health
purposes and subject to conditions and safeguards (Article 81);
OR
• processing is necessary for historical, statistical or scientific
research purposes subject to conditions and safeguards (Article
83)
• controller has burden of proving that the data subject has given
the consent to the processing operation
• consent is not a valid legal ground for the processing of
personal data, where there is a clear imbalance between the
data subject and the controller (likely: HCP / patient relation)

GDPR – right to erasure
• The right to withdraw consent and right to erasure (Article 17
GDPR)
Difficult to implement if data is stored in archived backups
• Real risk that statistical analyses will be “depowered” as a result of
such changes as result of exercise of rights (particularly in the case
of orphan diseases or conditions with difficult inclusion and
exclusion criteria, such as paediatratic), thereby calling into question
existing registrations (let alone future developments).
• Council general approach addresses this up to a point, but not in
relation to commercial big data applications in health

25
GDPR: threatening healthcare

Security
• Medical devices design requirements
• Data protection security requirements
• NIS directive (Network Information Systems)
26

Security
Data controllers and processors should implement appropriate
technical & organizational measures to protect data from loss or
any form of unlawful processing.
No specific security measures are mentioned, however security
measures should take into account:
• Nature of the data to be protected
• State of the art
• Aim to prevent unnecessary collection and further processing of
personal data
• Overriding principle: Plan-Do-Check-Act
• Social engineering?

Privacy by design obligations for
medical devices
• WP 202: software on smart devices
• WP 223: Controller has responsibility for security of IoT devices
• Parties purchasing OEM devices and solutions will want privacy by
design compliance warranties

Privacy by design obligations for
medical devices
WP 223 on end of life devices and remote monitoring / measuring devices

Data protection: security case
study
CASE
STUDY

Dutch DPA & security of health data
Conclusion in Annual report 2013 of the Dutch Data Protection Authority:
‘Security of health data not up to standards’
1. DPA Report related to Okki-app in September 2014
Lessons learned from this report?
• In any case, use SSL for transmitting data over the internet.
• In case of an app that is designed to be used by children under 16 years
of age, consent for the processing of personal data has to be obtained
from the parents (legal representative).

Dutch DPA & security of health data
2. Report related to network security & protection of health data in a
hospital published in November 2014
Lessons learned from this report?
• Ensure an overview of all the software and when the software is end of
life.
• Timely updates of the software and replacement of end of life software
that is no longer supported by the supplier.
• If replacement of end of life software is not possible, take additional
measures such as separating the network, disconnecting from the
network or implement strict access control to reduce security risks.
• Use proactive monitoring of the network to detect abnormal behavior of
users and systems.
• Perform periodic penetration tests to detect vulnerabilities in systems
and equipment and take measures to remedy the vulnerabilities.
• Check the terms and conditions of software developers and suppliers on
updates and security.

www.axonlawyers.com
THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION
Erik Vollebregt
Axon Lawyers
Piet Heinkade 183
1019 HC Amsterdam
T +31 88 650 6500
F +31 88 650 6555
M +31 6 47 180 683
E erik.vollebregt@axonlawyers.com
@meddevlegal
B http://medicaldeviceslegal.com
READ MY BLOG:
http://medicaldeviceslegal.com

Medical device data protection and security

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