Privacy in Mayo Health Site

Privacy settingsI was recently asked by a friend to vote for their essays on connect.mayoclinic.org. So I headed over to the site only to find that they require you to register before voting. Since registration would prevent duplicate votes, I felt that this is a fair thing to request of the voters. In the process of registering Mayo wanted me to tell them my birthday, name, city, state etc. Then they wanted me to share my health topics and concerns with them. I gave them all the information. The real surprise came on the last page  of “Privacy Settings”.

Take a look at the attached picture. The privacy settings are all set by default open to public (“Everyone”). Dear Mayo, we trust you to do the right thing. Unlike Facebook, please have our default privacy settings to be stricter than “Everyone”.