Facebook parent company Meta says its Meta Pixel tracking tool, installed at 33 top hospitals and seven health systems' websites and patient portals, does not collect sensitive information, GovInfo Security reported Oct. 25.
A Meta spokesperson told GovInfo Security, "Advertisers should not send sensitive information about people through our business tools as doing so is against our policies."
The spokesperson added that it educates its users on how to properly set up business tools to prevent sensitive data from being collected and that its tools are designed to filter out that information if detected.
This comes as Advocate Aurora Health reported that 3 million patients' information may have been sent to Meta after it used its web tracking technology on its website and patient portals.
Meta is currently part of two lawsuits, along with Chicago-based Northwestern Memorial Hospital, UCSF Medical Center and San Francisco-based Dignity Health, for allegedly collecting sensitive patient data from the hospitals in exchange for information about how targeted ads are performing.