In light of the recent Supreme Court ruling, several medical treatments that used to be legal may now become illegal - either in your area or nation-wide. States may even try to make their laws retroactive or use actions done today to prove a pattern of behavior (theoretically, this is unconstitutional. but I wouldnât rely on that protection given the insane reversals of constitutional protections these days).
If you are in a position where you are receiving medical treatment that may become illegal in the future, or if you are receiving medical treatment somewhere else because it is illegal where you live, always remember:
- Anything you post on any social media account, including private accounts and twitter/tumblr accounts that donât have your name, can and will be supoenaed and used against you in court. Your IP will hand over your internet history and the police will find every account you have. Deleting posts from your account does not make them undiscoverable.
- Anything you DM or message another person on any social media account, including private accounts and twitter/tumblr accounts, can and will be supoenaed and used against you in court. Deleting these messages will not make them undiscoverable
- SMS messages and iMessage conversations can be subpoenaed. iPhones will not be unlocked for the police (yet- still being debated in courts), but your iCloud accounts will be made available to them, including backups of your devices that contain all data as of that date. If you use an Android device, Google will unlock your phone for the police.
- âTrueâ encrypted communication apps who wonât hand over unencrypted files to the police are few and far between, but they do exist. Do thorough research before relying on any claims of encryption.
- Almost every VPN provider has handed information over to the police, in one way or another, no matter what they claim. Additionally, Chromeâs âincognito modeâ still tracks and stores all your searches in an account associated with you.
-HIPAA does not protect your medical records from court subpoena (discuss this with your doctor if you need more information about when and to whom they will hand over records under HIPAA)
Tl;dr: ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING you put in writing can (and will) be discovered and used against you in court. This doesnât mean you need to be paranoid; just remain vigilant if you are in a position where uncertain, changing laws make medical privacy a greater concern for you.
