CN Services and HIPAA

HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) sets the standard for protecting sensitive patient data in the United States. Generally, platforms that handle protected health information (PHI) such as electronic medical records, health information exchanges, and telemedicine platforms need to be HIPAA compliant. Learn more about HIPAA.

As a digital learning and ePortfolio platform, CourseNetworking is not specifically designed to comply with HIPAA. CN’s social and sharing nature makes it impossible, with the current technology, to automatically prevent users from storing, transmitting, or maintaining protected health information (PHI) on the platform, like in their posts, courses, and ePortfolios. 

Institutions and programs whose curriculum involves internships, practicums, and other experiences where students and instructors may work with protected health information should proceed with caution to not share this information on CN or should seek out HIPAA-compliant alternatives designed to handle such information. If a student has created any content on the platform that violates the HIPAA Privacy Rule, the instructor should reach out to the students or CN support (help@thecn.com) to delete the content as soon as possible. 

We would like to note that although CourseNetworking is not HIPAA compliant, it is both FERPA and GDPR compliant to safeguard students’ academic information and records, as well as the security and privacy of users’ general data. 

If you have any questions about HIPAA or CN’s privacy policy, feel free to contact the CN team.