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Comment by lbhnact | Hacker News Reader

This site demonstrates quite efficiently why it's plainly illegal to advertise the claims that it makes in the headline.

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Especially when I type in "stomach" (a very very common ailment is stomach discomfort) and there are two results: "vomiting on an empty stomach" and "abdominal pain, exacerbating on an empty stomach". There's nothing for "intestine", which intestinal discomfort is pretty high up the list as well. These are things I might turn to the Internet for advice, even if it's just "take some Tums and lay down".

There's a ton of stuff for heart-related issues though, something I'd never risk an answer gotten online for.

I flagged this submission. It's not just letting you explore symptoms, but collecting names and ages from individuals without a bare minimum effort to post any kind of privacy policy. Who's behind the site? How can I contact their HIPAA privacy officer (a requirement in the US at least)?

This is an open source demo application. Not a commercial website, neither intend to be one. Here is the code - https://github.com/mastercoder82/getwell-soon Look for yourself and check if your name is collected, social-engineered or sold to insurance companies.

P.S - If you have even little knowledge about browser dev console, you will know that the name doesn't even leave your browser.

There are a few counter-arguments to that. First, it's impossible to determine that the source on GitHub is the same as what is deployed to a server. Additionally, having to locally debug any given site in order to trace whether or not information is being transmitted is an unrealistic expectation.

I trust that your intentions are in the right place, just that when it comes to medical-related things it's worthwhile to err on the side of caution. If some information is not being used, it's best not to ask for it in the first place.

Makes sense. Removed the "name" field.

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