![]() ![]() Bing: Microsoft’s new version of its search engine, which is powered by artificial intelligence, has been offering an array of inaccurate and at times bizarre responses to some users.But unlike a person’s blood test results and other patient information collected by doctors and hospitals - which are protected by the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, known as HIPAA - personal health details that tens of millions of consumers enter into apps or search for online, like the names of drugs or diseases, are specifically covered by few legal protections. Over the last two decades, start-ups and giant tech companies have introduced a range of fitness devices, smartwatches and fertility apps. The F.T.C.’s case against GoodRx could upend widespread user-profiling and ad-targeting practices in the multibillion-dollar digital health industry, and it puts companies on notice that regulators intend to curb the nearly unfettered trade in consumers’ health details. And it underscores the F.T.C.’s intensifying efforts to push digital health services to beef up their user privacy and security protections. "We must be very, very careful" in deciding whether to make further tweaks to YCC, he added.The crackdown on GoodRx comes at a moment of heightened concern over the leaking of sensitive health information, particularly in states that have banned or severely limited abortions. ![]() "We shouldn't undermine the stimulus impact with policy tweaks," Wakatabe said, when asked whether the BOJ could raise the cap again, Wakatabe said. While December's move was necessary to make YCC more sustainable, the BOJ essentially diminished the stimulus effect of its policy by allowing yields to rise more, Wakatabe said. As a result, it now allows the 10-year bond yield to rise to 0.5 per cent, up from the previous cap of 0.25 per cent. Under attack by investors betting on a near-term rate hike, the BOJ made a surprise tweak to its yield control policy in December by widening the allowance band around its 10-year yield target. Japan's core consumer prices in December were 4.0 per cent higher than a year earlier, rising at twice the rate of the BOJ's inflation target and keeping alive market expectations that the central bank would soon phase out stimulus. In fact, downside risks remain fairly strong, so we must not let our guard down," Wakatabe told a news conference after delivering the speech. "There's both upside and downside risks to the price outlook. Wakatabe, whose term as deputy governor will end in March, said an increasing number of companies were raising prices and becoming more keen to lift wages.īut there was uncertainty on whether such changes in the price outlook would be sustained and help Japan achieve the inflation target in a sustainable manner, he said. With inflation exceeding its 2 per cent target, markets are rife with speculation the BOJ will start raising interest rates when dovish incumbent Governor Haruhiko Kuroda's term ends in April.Ĭritics of the BOJ's ultra-loose policy warn of the rising cost of prolonged easing, such as market distortions caused by the bank's relentless defence of its yield cap. Wakatabe also said there was "absolutely no change" in the central bank's commitment to maintain ultra-loose policy. "This applies to dealing with not only deflation but also inflation." "It could undermine the transparency of monetary policy and its effectiveness," he said in a speech. ![]() Wakatabe, a vocal proponent of aggressive monetary easing, said watering down the inflation target risked making the objective of the BOJ's monetary policy too vague. The remarks came in the wake of a proposal by a panel of academic and business executives to make the inflation target a long-term goal, rather than one that must be met quickly, so that the BOJ can more flexibly raise interest rates. He also said the central bank must be cautious about making further tweaks to its policy of yield curve control (YCC), such as widening the band around its 10-year bond yield target. SHIZUOKA, Japan :Bank of Japan (BOJ) Deputy Governor Masazumi Wakatabe on Thursday warned against watering down the bank's 2 per cent inflation target, saying that doing so would undermine the effects of its ultra-loose monetary policy. ![]()
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