A recent study by researchers from Philadelphia-based University of Pennsylvania found 96% of hospital websites transmit user information to third parties such as Meta and Google.
The study, published April 11 in JAMA Network Open, analyzed privacy policies on 100 nonfederal acute care hospitals between November 2023 and January 2024.
It found that 96% of hospital websites transmit user information to third parties, but only 71% included a publicly accessible privacy policy. Of those policies, 56.3% disclosed specific third-party companies received user information.
"A substantial number of hospital websites did not present users with adequate information about the privacy implications of website use, either because they lacked a privacy policy or had a privacy policy that contained limited content about third-party recipients of user information," the study authors wrote.