# Data Protection and Privacy of the Internet of Healthcare Things (IoHTs)
## 4 Healthcare Data Protection Legislation and Framework
### Data Protection Issues/Aspects Not Covered in Healthcare Laws
Data and context quality are mostly overlooked issues even if these facts play a significant role in the privacy debates in the context of IoT. The quality of data highly depends on the environment in which it is collected. The quality of context may be unknown where there is no or incomplete information about the context. It may also be ambivalent as there is a chance of contradictory information from different context sources. Context quality generates new problems of confidentiality that have not been addressed by current research. Context quality is related to the information that is not to be processed by hardware components that likely provide the information. It is better to protect context quality as it is sensitive information. Change in context quality is also sensitive information. IoT devices generate data based on context and do not allow users to shut down the system or to easily disconnect from it. To enhance transparency of the healthcare systems, not only healthcare data that is propagated from different devices need to be controlled, but also the data generated automatically by the healthcare devices need to be managed. Despite this important issue, no law has been made in this regard. There is a need to develop a combined approach with technical standards and existing regulatory frameworks to ensure data transparency. Privacy violating interactions and presentation in IoT-based healthcare applications like heartbeat monitors, geo-tracking devices, automated insulin pumps, and other healthcare devices envisage and require strong interaction with the patient. In such devices, the information will be provided through sensors or other recorded medical device readings. This information goes through different devices to reach its ultimate destination and becomes a threat to privacy when this sensitive information is exchanged through different systems. In smart cities, for instance, an individual could make a query for the way to a specific health clinic. Such a query should not be answered, for instance, by showing the way to a health clinic nearby, visible to any passerby, another example of such medical devices that do not encrypt data while transmitting to the remote server. Any adversary intending to sniff that data could easily use this information for a malicious purpose. Due to the close interaction and presentation techniques, the threat of privacy-violating interaction and presentation is a major challenge in healthcare laws. Life cycle transition privacy is compromised when private information is disclosed by IoT devices during the life cycle transition. These devices hold information like vital sign readings, drug dosage, and actuator functions. Healthcare data is highly sensitive, but also the collection of simple usage data (e.g., location, duration, frequency) could disclose a lot about the life cycle of people. Despite evident problems with healthcare devices, the life cycle transition problem has never been addressed. The life cycle of healthcare devices is still modeled as buy-once-own-forever and solutions have not evolved beyond a total memory wipe (e.g., before selling a wearable) or physical destruction. There is a need to identify the requirements for flexible solutions to implement convenient privacy life cycle management mechanisms. Linkage refers to the linkage of different previously separated systems like combining forms of revealed data sources. When data is gathered from different sources with different permissions and contexts it causes loss of context and poor judgment. Threats of linking different systems and data sources are not novel. Online social networks and integrated third-party applications are facing the same problems. However, IoT networks and services rely on the interaction and collaboration of many coequal systems. Managing the numerous devices in IoHT systems and their connectivity with other systems will raise more challenges in linkage threats. The threat of linkage will cause problems in the IoT evolution process. There are mainly two reasons for it.