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

PurpleDime:

I don’t expect people who work in admin to have advanced IT knowledge. But I do expect them to be able to know the basics of their organization’s privacy practices and to be able to explain it in plain terms.

I’d say it is a case of XKCD #2501.

I’d guess it is far more likely that someone who might know most of the stuff (e.g. things like differences between SMTP opportunistic TLS vs. E2E) is the IT department which set them up, and the lawyers which (hopefully with input from said IT department, and hopefully giving directions to IT detapartment) wrote the privacy policy document (if they did).

PurpleDime:

Most doctors have privacy policies in their medical forms. In fact, I do believe it’s a must, which is why I was surprised my doctor didn’t have any in hers

That sounds like an red flag, yes. If in your jurisdiction it is mandatory, I would run away fast if they lack it.

i.e. If they disregard the law and don’t have mandated privacy policy, they might also not have a required MD training either (instead of that they might, say, just be asking ChatGPT about your illnesses and giving prescriptions based on that).

PurpleDime:

I expect you to have the answers. Otherwise, you are expecting me to sign a document that neither of us understands, which is INSANE.

Sure. I’m just saying (at least in my experience) that what the receptionists (or MDs) at most will likely be able to do is read you the policy letter for letter, and not interpret it nor explain how specific technical implementation (e.g. gmail) fits (or doesn’t fit, as it might be) inside that legal framework.

For any such explanation, they would (should) refer to DPO (or, if not in EU - to their legal, which would then hopefully refer to their IT for clarification, instead of just repeating/rephrasing existing privacy policy, which might often happen if they think they could get away with that)

PurpleDime:

It’s the blind leading the blind.

It’s actually significantly worse IMHO (as first blind person in “blind leading the blind” doesn’t generally have ulterior profit motives that depend on draining money from second blind person),