Many of you may have seen this from JEMS.com:

http://www.jems.com/news_and_articles/articles/Anatomy_of_Florida_Photo_\
Controversy.html

I am interested in hearing views on this, first on the subject of the
taking of the pictures (forget the e-mailing of them for a moment).
Let's accept his premise that the purpose was as an "investigative and
educational tool." Was it appropriate to take them? Do you have a
policy on the taking of digital pictures on EMS calls? Are members
allowed to take them with their personal cameras? Department-issued
cameras only? If pics are allowed, how do you manage their privacy and
security from a HIPAA perspective?

More clear-cut (presumably) is that he shouldn't have e-mailed them.
This case demonstrates one reason: After you e-mail something you have
no control over it; there is no way to restrict who and to how many
others the intended recipients forward it to. In addition, you can't
control the security of the servers it resides on, for years perhaps.
Our philosophy of e-mail is that it is inherently insecure, and we
forbid the e-mailing of PHI except in a password-protected or encrypted
form.

Others?

Jim