The three hard limits
OPWDD draws three bright lines around HES technology that touches privacy:
Privacy & rights
When HES technology requires consent
Most HES technology is benign. Some of it — cameras, audio, GPS — touches privacy. OPWDD's regulations require written informed consent before any of it goes live.
Written informed consent — what triggers it
The ADM requires written informed consent whenever HES limits privacy. That includes:
- Any remote audio or video, anywhere in the home (continuous or triggered).
- Ongoing GPS tracking, in or out of the home.
- Sensor-based monitoring that captures information about anyone other than the HES recipient (a parent, a sibling, a roommate).
Consent is required from the HES recipient and from anyone else in the household whose privacy is affected. Consent is revocable at any time — and revocation immediately changes what the technology is allowed to do.
Recommendations are not deployments
A recommendation from any screener or assessment — including the tools on this site — is exploratory. Nothing is installed or turned on until the HES Provider's own assessment is done. Wherever the technology limits privacy, written informed consent must first be signed by the person and by everyone else in the household whose privacy is affected. That consent conversation is the right place to raise worries about cameras, audio, or tracking — and consent can be revoked at any time.
Next: how HES providers work — the assessment, setup, and consent steps described above are theirs to run.
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