A class action lawsuit has been filed in the US state of California against Meta (Facebook), UCSF Medical Center, and Dignity Health Medical Foundation, alleging that organizations illegally collect sensitive health data about patients for the purpose of targeted advertising.
Meta is accused of illegally accessing a lot of sensitive information about patients.
According to the allegation, Facebook and other organizations are illegally accessing sensitive health information such as patients themselves, their condition, doctors and prescription drugs. At this point; hospitals and is accused of not informing patients about Metadata collection and not providing any user consent.
The plaintiffs state that they realized the situation when Facebook, the social media platform owned by Meta, started to encounter advertisements specially prepared according to their medical conditions. It is stated that Meta reaches patient information with Pixel service.
Meta’s Pixel service has been found on 33 websites of the top 100 hospitals in the US. In 7 cases, he claims, the system went beyond password-protected patient portals. It is estimated that Meta Pixel reached the information of more than 26 million patients in 2020 alone.
Meta and other healthcare organizations are also accused of continuing to collect data despite knowing it is illegal. As a result, the plaintiffs seek damages from Meta and other organizations for breaches of privacy, breach of medical information privacy, unjust enrichment, breach of contract, Computer Data Access and Fraud Act (CDAFA).
It is a matter of curiosity how Meta will make a statement on the subject. It seems that Facebook, which has been hurt many times in recent years about data privacy, will be in trouble again. So what do you think about the unauthorized tracking of patient information by Facebook? You can share your views with us in the comments section.
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