[tyxodiwktis]

I used to work at a company that hired temps off Craigslist to do fairly sensitive healthcare work. The economics and extreme seasonality made that the only viable approach. Software like this was absolutely critical to limiting what people could do and preventing things like identity theft etc. Strong deterrent effect too- during orientation they would show people exactly what they could see. Not great in a general work environment with FTEs but these tools have legitimate uses.

[deeblering4]

Not hiring temps off craigslist to do sensitive healthcare work seems like a pretty viable approach, too.

[tyxodiwktis]

Unfortunately everyone in the space does it. Hiring 200 FT with benefits that you only have work for during two months a year will quickly put you out of business.

[AstralStorm]

You could be the company that does not and gets as big as SAP.

(Which does not.)

[kube-system]

It really depends on what it is. There's a lot more to healthcare jobs than just salaried people with post-secondary degrees.

[rexpop]

Incredible how shamelessly that comment suggests two wrongs might make a right.

[microcolonel]

> Incredible how shamelessly that comment suggests two wrongs might make a right.

It's almost as though there's nothing to be ashamed of, and these two compromises together actually do make a right.

[koheripbal]

Not a lot of career oriented people want to do data entry.

[titzer]

I'm sorry, that company does what? It is absolutely insane that temps off Craigslist could be trusted with such sensitive information under any circumstances. That company is asking for a data breach and to be sued into oblivion.

The fundamental problem here is that that company is cutting corners to save money. Full stop.

[kube-system]

Under HIPAA laws, basically any healthcare data is "sensitive" data. An "extremely seasonal" healthcare job that deals with "sensitive data" could be someone that works in a call center that answers questions about health insurance -- just my guess.

[tyxodiwktis]

Per other note, everyone in the space does it. It’s a fairly commodity business so paying more or keeping people all year when there are only two months of work would put them out of business quickly. If anything it’s a flaw in the underlying law that creates that seasonality

[Spooky23]

It's healthcare, nothing makes sense.

A trained ape reading a script for insurance enrollment is handling "sensitive" data, but your prescription history is sold in real-time to data brokers.

[novok]

At least they are transparent about what they can do. Many if not most companies are surreptitious about it, including the FANGs.

[temporaryvector]

I've always been a bit curious, do these types of programs make any attempt to identify whether they're running in a VM?

[jedieaston]

They could, but since so much of healthcare sits inside Citrix these days, it's unlikely that in OP's scenario it would've mattered. It's pretty easy to find out if you are running in a VM on Windows though, so I bet they do.

[Kaze404]

It's also just as easy to hide it.

[gentleman11]

Agreed, but for every legitimate use case there are 10,000 that are just invasive and manipulative

[noneeeed]

I'm really curious, what sort of healthcare admin work is seasonal like this?

[Spooky23]

Open enrollment related stuff.

[RNCTX]

A dumb idea turns into dumb system requiring dumb labor to complete a circle of dumb that no one wants. Imagine that.

[Spooky23]

Dumb is a virus.

[pphysch]

HIPAA compliance requires these sort of measures to be taken anywhere, not just at home. This is rather unrelated to general-propose "bossware".

[snuxoll]

I work for a HIPAA covered entity - software such as this is not even close to required to meet our compliance obligations. If I found we were trying to deploy it I would fight tooth and nail to protect the dignity of my coworkers and myself, and if they failed you better believe I would have a new position lined up within a week.

“Bossware” like this is not a security tool, it’s a way for micro-managers and ass-in-seat bosses to be more effective in their misguided management styles.