It has been widely asserted, and most people believe, that the Privacy Rule of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) protects the privacy of health information. Unfortunately, this is a myth. Just as the “P” in HIPAA does not stand for “privacy,” it turns out that the HIPAA Privacy Rule, which went into effect in 2002, actually eliminates privacy protection, and does so in a way that prevents privacy violations from being detected, monitored, or audited.