The North Carolina attorney general's office is investigating Raleigh, N.C.-based WakeMed and Durham, N.C.-based Duke Health for possibly sharing patient data with Facebook, an agency spokesperson confirmed to Becker's.
Health systems across the country have been removing the Meta Pixel from their websites and patient portals in recent months after a June investigation in The Markup revealed the data tracking tool was sharing protected health information with Facebook parent Meta.
"Our office is extremely concerned about the reports on Facebook's access to medical information and the disclosure of people's information," the North Carolina attorney general spokesperson emailed Becker's. "We are actively investigating this matter."
The spokesperson declined to comment on whether the agency is investigating any other hospitals or health systems in the state on the same matter.
"Protecting the privacy and security of patient health information is and always has been one of WakeMed’s highest priorities," a health system spokesperson emailed Becker's. "In support of WakeMed’s core principles of demonstrating transparency, accountability, integrity, and honesty, the health system is notifying some patients of the potential that select data entered by visitors to two specific WakeMed websites may have been transmitted to Facebook (now Meta) in error."
Duke Health didn't respond to a request for comment.
The news of the investigation was first reported by Triangle Business Journal.