Are hospitals and health systems still sharing patient data with Facebook parent company Meta Platforms?
Yes, they are, says a lawyer suing the tech giant.
Attorney Jay Barnes said he sent Meta a list of healthcare providers that are still transmitting data to the company, according to an Aug. 16 Courthouse News Service story. At least 664 health systems and other providers have sent patient data to Meta, according to his clients' complaint.
"[Meta has] been on notice for a long time that they're collecting this information without authorization,” Mr. Barnes said at the hearing covered by the news outlet.
The judge in the case, in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, ruled that much of the class-action lawsuit could proceed.
"We've been clear in our policies that advertisers should not send sensitive information about people through our Business Tools," a Meta spokesperson emailed Becker's. "Doing so is against our policies and we educate advertisers on properly setting up Business tools to prevent this from occurring. Our system is designed to filter out potentially sensitive data it is able to detect."
Besides Meta, hospitals and health systems around the country are being sued for their use of the Meta Pixel, which plaintiffs say shared their protected health information with the tech giant, allowing it to tailor ads based on their medical conditions. Health systems had used the technology to track consumer behavior online. Investigative news outlet The Markup first exposed the practice in 2022. Downers Grove, Ill.-based Advocate Health Care and Milwaukee-based Aurora Health Care recently agreed to a $12.2 million settlement in one of the lawsuits.
Twitter (now called X) has also been accused of receiving patient data via similar technology. Other Big Tech companies including Google and Microsoft have also been named in some of the lawsuits. None of the companies have admitted to any wrongdoing.