I used to work at a company that hired temps off Craigslist to do fairly sensitive healthcare work. The economics and extreme seasonality made that the only viable approach. Software like this was absolutely critical to limiting what people could do and preventing things like identity theft etc. Strong deterrent effect too- during orientation they would show people exactly what they could see. Not great in a general work environment with FTEs but these tools have legitimate uses.
Unfortunately everyone in the space does it. Hiring 200 FT with benefits that you only have work for during two months a year will quickly put you out of business.
I'm sorry, that company does what? It is absolutely insane that temps off Craigslist could be trusted with such sensitive information under any circumstances. That company is asking for a data breach and to be sued into oblivion.
The fundamental problem here is that that company is cutting corners to save money. Full stop.
Under HIPAA laws, basically any healthcare data is "sensitive" data. An "extremely seasonal" healthcare job that deals with "sensitive data" could be someone that works in a call center that answers questions about health insurance -- just my guess.
Per other note, everyone in the space does it. It’s a fairly commodity business so paying more or keeping people all year when there are only two months of work would put them out of business quickly. If anything it’s a flaw in the underlying law that creates that seasonality
A trained ape reading a script for insurance enrollment is handling "sensitive" data, but your prescription history is sold in real-time to data brokers.
They could, but since so much of healthcare sits inside Citrix these days, it's unlikely that in OP's scenario it would've mattered. It's pretty easy to find out if you are running in a VM on Windows though, so I bet they do.
I work for a HIPAA covered entity - software such as this is not even close to required to meet our compliance obligations. If I found we were trying to deploy it I would fight tooth and nail to protect the dignity of my coworkers and myself, and if they failed you better believe I would have a new position lined up within a week.
“Bossware” like this is not a security tool, it’s a way for micro-managers and ass-in-seat bosses to be more effective in their misguided management styles.
