My experiences with digitalisation

I was born in 1989 and as such were part of the time when internet became a thing. I remember vividly the modem sound when connecting to internet at my home computer. We started to learn computers in ATK(automaattinen tietojenkäsittely) classes, a term that is no longer in daily use. I dont remember that we had any lessons about internet safety, but as internet was growing at that time, i dont think anyone knew the risks.

As I were always interested in computers, I did spend a lot of time in the internet and learned a lot on the way. Nowadays im rather proficient in the use of internet and understand the risks and possibilities it creates.

In my previous job as a x-ray technician I mainly used EPR and the imaging equipment. In my current job as a QA Engineer developing electronic patient record i use digital solutions daily. In the future I don’t think that my current line of work can become any more digital, however practices and requrements of the software will always alter as new laws and regulations are made.

Dark side of digitalisation

The risks of digitalisation are ever growing. The data collection is a billion dollar market and regulations tend to be slightly lagging. Facebook and Google for example hold massive personal user data that can be used in malicious way.

If the data collected is not sored in a secure way, and third party members get access to you data, you can become a target of extortion like in the case of Vastaamo in 2020. In that case a hacker stole the information of patients and wanted money for the data.

GDPR(General data protection regulation) is one step in the right direction to make sure that data is handled, collected and stored properly. In my work as a radiographer I remember in 2018 when we started to ask a lot more questions and permissions from patients regarding their data. Positives were that you were more informed about your personal data, and how it is handled but on the flip side data could not be so easily transferred to other facilities if consent was not made. This made some inconveniences for some patients that had data in other hospitals.

Reflections

With the materials, videos and other blog I learned how a person might get involved to digital solutions and how they adapt to it. This is valuable information for the future so that people focused material can be tailored to teach different groups with the knowledge of digital solutions. I did already know about the dangers of data gatering, storage and distribution, however i did learn new ways the data can be protected better. In the future my aim is to gather more information about cyber security, as my thesis will focus on that subject.