Opportunity for Supreme Court to Address De-anonymized Data

Last week, the Supreme Court granted review of Sorrell v. IMS Health Inc., after the Second Circuit Court of Appeal's decision to strike down Vermont's prescription confidentiality law. The law regulates data mining companies that sell or use doctors' prescribing records containing personal information on patients. The Second Circuit concluded as a matter of fact that “The PI data sold by the data-mining appellants is stripped of patient information, to protect patient privacy.” Will the publicity surrounding de-anonymization of Netflix data will present an opportunity for the Court to scrutinize individuals’ privacy rights as well?