Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Foundation Health Plan is notifying current and former patients that it shared information with third-party advertisers.
Kaiser Foundation Health Plan reported to the HHS' data breach portal that 13.4 million current and former members were affected by the breach. The cause of the breach, according to an April 25 report from TechCruch, was the use of online technologies on its websites and mobile applications that "may have transmitted personal information to third-party vendors."
According to the publication, former and current patient information may have been shared with third-parties such as Google, X and Microsoft. Patient information compromised includes IP addresses, as well as information that could indicate if members were signed into a Kaiser Permanente account or service and how members how members "interacted with and navigated through the website and mobile applications, and search terms used in the health encyclopedia."
A spokesperson for Kaiser told the publication that the current and former patients who utilized its websites and mobile apps will be notified about the breach in May.
Kaiser has since removed the tracking code from its websites and mobile apps.