- United States
- Mich.
- Letter
Block Government Access to Private Health Data
Recent reporting from ProPublica reveals that the State Department, under Secretary Marco Rubio and the Trump administration, is demanding direct access to foreign electronic health data systems—such as Uganda's—as a condition for receiving lifesaving humanitarian aid. Leveraging critical aid to extract personal health records sets an alarming precedent that threatens personal privacy and digital sovereignty worldwide.
While administration officials claim the data is de-identified, experts warn that health records can easily be reverse-engineered to identify individuals, exposing vulnerable populations to severe risks of discrimination, misuse, or exploitation by third parties for artificial intelligence training.
By tying essential health funding to invasive data access, this administration has shown it cannot be trusted to protect individual privacy rights. I urge you to join the senators demanding accountability and pass legislation to block the government from demanding access to private electronic health records.