How do I compellingly advocate for my privacy with doctors and other healthcare professionals?

FranklyFlawless:

Sure, but that is the most persistent method to making any progress in your situation, when everyone else is already captured by third-party platforms due to the network effect and have no intention of leaving them.

You’re right. The only way people are going to learn that this is an important issue is if they start hearing no. But I also understand that if I am in a tiny minority, it’s likely not going to make a difference. If I have alternatives, as in, the option of good doctors who respect my privacy, I can make peace with the idea that I’m not making waves with my refusal to comply with surveillance. But when most doctors operate this way in some form, you have to find a way to make noise.

The last time I said no and then reluctantly agreed to surveillance, my doctor refused to see me. Technically, they weren’t my doctor yet, because this was going to be our first appointment, but you get the point.

That being said, I’m not going to stop. I just have to be careful to not get a bad reputation that follows me around every time I see a new doctor.

lemon-swan:

I’m not sure that a holocaust/war analogy is really the right way to go with persuading your point of view.

I think your opinion is fair, but I do wonder, why did this never come up when Carissa Véliz released Privacy is Power (2020) , or when she made her TED Talk, or every time she brought it up on a podcast?

lemon-swan:

I know there are wars going on right now but I think that for most people wars happen elsewhere and are not expected “here”. Therefore people are not expecting to shield themselves imminently from their effects.

I don’t think this is universal. In fact, I believe it is quite common for many doctors to have had patients who come from war-torn countries or countries with other major crises, whether it’s climate change, drug cartels, etc. I also believe many, if not most, doctors have had patients who have suffered major emotional and/or physical traumas. There are also many Western examples of privacy breaches that have caused trauma.

If you have never been arrested, you would likely be traumatized by it if it happened to you, regardless of if you were arrested wrongly or rightly. I certainly would. Same if you were robbed at gun/knife point. Millions of people all over the world have experienced trauma, and I have little doubt that most doctors have had patients who’ve gone through trauma too.

lemon-swan:

Big tech companies seem to be regularly fined huge sums for law violations. Citing some of these examples could be more effective as they are currently happening and the sums of money involved might make people take note.

This is not a bad idea. But again, I suspect that as long as they don’t personally know someone this happened to, it’s not going to move them. And even then, it’s not a guarantee.