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Re:Studying how Firefox can collect additional data in a pri... by p49k on Tuesday August 22, 2017 @09:14AM (#15072017)
What do you mean, a URL must not contain PHI? You can't prevent a non-tech minded person from submitting questions about their health to any text field linked to a form with a GET method.

I'd argue that domains are the same- there are tons of domains that clearly indicate what they're about (e.g. stop-drinking.example)

Re:Studying how Firefox can collect additional data in a pri... by quickben on Tuesday August 22, 2017 @02:26PM (#15075123)
You can argue it all you want. Whoever is storing that is responsible under the Canadian laws criminally. It's probably the same if not worse in other countries (Germany, etc).
Re:Studying how Firefox can collect additional data in a pri... by mcless on Tuesday August 22, 2017 @09:27AM (#15072125)
@clarkevans But submitting search input via the GET method (e.g. https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+stop+drinking ) are a common practice in leading search engines.
Re:Studying how Firefox can collect additional data in a pri... by chimeracoder on Tuesday August 22, 2017 @09:30AM (#15072150)
> What do you mean, a URL must not contain PHI? You can't prevent a non-tech minded person from submitting questions about their health to any text field linked to a form with a GET method.

You can't, but that can't be part of Mozilla's threat model, and it's not relevant here anyway because Mozilla isn't collecting it.

And even if they were, that's not considered PHI legally. You are free to type any information about your own health that you want anywhere; that doesn't make it legally PHI, unless you are providing it to a Covered Entity.

> I'd argue that domains are the same- there are tons of domains that clearly indicate what they're about (e.g. stop-drinking.example)

This information is not legally considered PHI. As for privacy, SNI means that all domains you visit are already visible in transit, even if you are using SSL. Domain names are not considered private.

Re:Studying how Firefox can collect additional data in a pri... by Flammy on Tuesday August 22, 2017 @10:18AM (#15072624)
> This information is not legally considered PHI.

Do you have any sources that go into more detail?

When I've worked on PII in analytics, even TLDs were treated carefully. (obviously not the same from a legal perspective...)

Re:Studying how Firefox can collect additional data in a pri... by chimeracoder on Tuesday August 22, 2017 @06:06PM (#15076782)
> Do you have any sources that go into more detail? When I've worked on PII in analytics...

PHI is an incredibly well-defined term legally and is not equivalent to PII. Some things that constitute PHI actually wouldn't qualify as PII.

There are a lot of resources that explain HIPAA in great detail; if you want to know the specifics like here, you have to read the bill and the case law itself.

Re:Studying how Firefox can collect additional data in a pri... by syshum on Tuesday August 22, 2017 @09:41AM (#15072250)
>>You can't, but that can't be part of Mozilla's threat model,

How normal everyday people actually use their product cant be a part of the threat model... Really?

That is scary...

Re:Studying how Firefox can collect additional data in a pri... by p49k on Tuesday August 22, 2017 @11:44AM (#15073506)
I don't care what the legal definition of PHI is, I am concerned that Mozilla is collecting actual personal health information (if not through URLs, the domain name concern is still valid). And I know that DNS resolution is not necessarily secure from snooping, but having one extra orginazation explicitly collecting this data is more dangerous than not having one extra org collecting it.