How confidentiality and privacy differ in health care?

• A. Privacy is the patient’s right to control access to personal information; confidentiality is the obligation to protect information shared by the patient.
• B. Privacy is the obligation to protect information; confidentiality is the patient’s right to control access to information.
• C. Privacy is the patient’s right to control access to personal information; confidentiality is the obligation to protect information shared by the patient.
• D. Privacy is about data sharing with researchers; confidentiality about clinical notes.

Answer: (C)

Understanding the difference between privacy and confidentiality in health care starts with who has control and who has a duty. Privacy is the patient’s right to determine who can access their personal information and how it is used. Confidentiality is the obligation of health professionals and organizations to protect information that patients share, keeping it secure and not disclosing it without appropriate consent or a legitimate reason.

In practice, a patient decides what information can be shared and with whom, while the care team is bound to safeguard that information and only disclose it as needed for treatment, with consent, for payment, or as required by law. This separation helps balance individual autonomy with the responsibilities of care providers.

So the correct understanding is that privacy concerns the patient’s control over access to personal information, whereas confidentiality concerns the provider’s duty to protect information shared by the patient. The other descriptions mix these roles or describe related but different ideas, such as treating confidentiality as the right to control access or privacy as the obligation to protect information.