Social sharing about all topics is now commonplace, and the trend of increasingly open sharing about historically “private” aspects of our lives reflect changing standards about what’s appropriately public information. At the same time, for certain subjects – including health – privacy and confidentiality concerns often keep us from open sharing.

At the same time, we now know that sharing health information, particularly in an online social context, can have significant benefits (for all who share and others), especially when practiced in large groups/communities.

This session will explore how to create environments where participants receive the benefits of sharing, while also enjoying the peace of mind of privacy: secure sharing. It will address emerging trends in technology (including mobile sharing and privacy/security technology), products (including online and mobile services that allow anonymous sharing of health information), privacy controls and sharing trends, and current (as of the time of the talk) law, which collectively support the new and exciting prospect of "secure sharing" and the related benefits it creates.