US government is pushing to gain unprecedented access to your medical records – as data protections are weakening

A law professor explains that HIPAA leaves huge gaps — period-tracking apps, DNA testing companies, wearables, and even search history sit outside its protections, and covered records can still flow to law enforcement or researchers through roughly a dozen exceptions without patient consent. Since spring 2025, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has pursued access to Americans' medical records to study a vaccine-autism link that decades of research have already resolved, and one proposal could give HHS data on 90% of Americans' records by 2028.

HHS has declined to specify how many states are involved, what data it's collecting, or how it will be protected, while officials assure the public that stripping identifiers keeps individuals anonymous. A June 2026 Nature study auditing AI diagnostic models found that de-identification does not protect everyone equally, undercutting the central safeguard officials are leaning on.

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