Legislation is in order to define what analytics companies cannot do with data from healthcare sites.
I’m not sure if there are other categories which ought to be protected, but healthcare is certainly one.
[EDIT: my karma is now 667. Would someone please remove their upvote just for a bit? A screenshot of "devilbunny (666)" from HN would be a great little digital memento.]
[karma whirring up and down could power a small city]
America is capitalist and federalist. That means either hospitals are for profit entities, non-profit entities or government owned entities.
Ducks quack, for profit entities attempt to grow profits, non-profit entities attempt to grow donors and government entities attempt to keep the things way they were yesterday.
As a society, we can pick which models we allow and in which allocation, but we can't ask a duck to be a swan - each option has positives and negatives.
When we ask for the positives without the negatives, then complain when the inevitable negatives come, is the fault with the model or with our expectations?
The better way is to iterate and grapple with the rewards in the system and where transparency should be forced or legislated. Change the incentives and you'll change the behavior. Unfortunately, you will also encounter new and unexpected negative effects...see: ducks quack.
While the TFA might be about hospitals specifically, your suggestion that we need regulation should not be focused on just healthcare/HIPPA type situations. These data hoarders need to be reigned in if not just eliminated.