If you’re tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The latest European Parliament (EP) efforts, grappling with how to allow access to sensitive medical records without patients’ permission, while still maintaining a semblance of caring for privacy, has had an update. Last week, a plenary vote in this EU institution revealed that while most EP members (MEPs) want to allow that access – and in that manner – they are also opposed to wholesale, mandatory creation of electronic records for every person in the EU. The scheme is known as the European Health Data Space, and it received the support from an EP majority. As privacy and digital security advocate, lawyer and MEP Patrick Breyer notes on his blog, this database would be accessible remotely, and consist of health records of each medical treatment. It was only thanks to an amendment accepted at the last minute (proposed by Breyer, of Germany’s Pirate party, and several other EP groups that do not form the EP majority) that nation-states will be able to let their citizens object to having their sensitive health data harvested into this interconnected system of medical records. Breyer also notes that in his country, Germany, as well as in Austria, the (always unfortunate, as in being the opposite and negative version of “opt- in”) “opt-out” in this matter is already in place. Now, the (in)famous complexities of EU decision-making are coming to the fore, and the text of the legislation that…EU Parliament Supports Granting Access to Sensitive Health Data Without Asking Patients