The main differences between GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) lie in their scope and focus. GDPR is a comprehensive data protection regulation that applies to all businesses that handle the personal data of individuals within the European Union, regardless of the company’s location. It aims to protect the privacy and personal data of individuals by regulating the collection, processing, and storage of personal data. On the other hand, HIPAA is a US law specifically focused on protecting the privacy and security of individually identifiable health information. It applies to healthcare providers, health plans, and healthcare clearinghouses, as well as their business associates. HIPAA sets standards for the use and disclosure of protected health information and requires safeguards to ensure its confidentiality and integrity.
In simpler terms, GDPR is like a set of rules that apply to any company that deals with personal information of people in Europe, ensuring that the data is handled with care and respect for privacy. Meanwhile, HIPAA is a specific set of rules for healthcare-related organizations in the US, making sure that personal health information is kept private and secure. It’s like GDPR is a universal privacy shield for personal data, while HIPAA is a specialized lockbox specifically for healthcare information in the US.
Please note that the provided answer is a brief overview; for a comprehensive exploration of privacy, privacy-enhancing technologies, and privacy engineering, as well as the innovative contributions from our students at Carnegie Mellon’s Privacy Engineering program, we highly encourage you to delve into our in-depth articles available through our homepage at https://privacy-engineering-cmu.github.io/.
Author: My name is Aman Priyanshu, you can check out my website for more details or check out my other socials: LinkedIn and Twitter