Hackers hijack and publish mental health data of hundreds of people
This is a classic "Damoclean sword" conundrum.<p>The ability to digitize and aggregate the data, and maybe even subject it to some kinds of AI, might result in <i>massive</i> improvement in therapy.<p>Mental health treatment has come an <i>incredibly</i> long way, just in the last couple of decades. It's even more amazing, when you look at how it went a hundred years ago. Some of the reasons are because of the ability to study treatment methodologies and outcomes.<p>But having the data in a place that can happen, is very, <i>very</i> risky.<p>People with mental health problems tend to be treated as "disposable people" by a lot of folks. I guarantee that the first thing the hackers did, was find a way to "dehumanize" the people in their data. Having the people as "data" went a long way towards that.<p>But <i>people will die</i> as a <i>direct</i> result of this breach. That's not hyperbole. It will happen. Some people will commit suicide, some will avoid treatment, causing all kinds of collateral damage, and some may actually kill other people, because of this.<p>I have a <i>lot</i> of close, personal experience with people suffering from mental health issues, and this is about as bad a nightmare as you can imagine.<p>It will reverberate around the world.