An anonymous patient from Orlando Health filed a lawsuit March 16 alleging that the health system's website used pixel tracking technology that sent some patient information to Facebook.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court of Florida, alleges that the health system did not inform patients of the pixel tracking technology nor did the health system inform patients that some of their information they were inputting on its website was being sent to Facebook.
The plaintiff also alleges that the pixel tracking system violated her privacy and is seeking compensatory damages and injunctive relief. The move comes as hospitals and health systems across the country are facing similar lawsuits alleging that they have put pixel tracking technologies onto their websites and patient portals for marketing purposes.
These pixels have been found to have been installed on 33 U.S. hospital websites.
The technology sends Facebook patients' data when people schedule appointments, which could include IP addresses, physicians' names and search terms used to find the physician.