Facebook may have violated patient privacy laws:
Meta may have scooped up sensitive medical information without consent. The Verge reports that two proposed class-action lawsuits accuse the company and hospitals of violating HIPAA, the California Invasion of Privacy Act and other laws by collecting patient data without consent. Meta's Pixel analytic tracking tool allegedly sent health statuses, appointment details and other data to Facebook when it was present on patient portals.
In one lawsuit from last month, a patient said Pixel gathered data from the UC San Francisco and Dignity Health portals that was used to deliver ads related to heart and knee issues. The second lawsuit, from June, is broader and claims at least 664 providers shared medical info with Facebook through Pixel.
[...] They also follow a string of privacy-related US legal action against the social media giant. Meta is facing a DC Attorney General suit over Cambridge Analytica's collection of more than 70 million Americans' personal data. The company is also grappling with lawsuits over its deactivated facial recognition system, and only this year settled a 2012 class-action over the use of tracking cookies. These latest courtroom battles suggest that concerns about Meta's data gathering practices are far from over, even as the company makes its own efforts to crack down on misuse.
Previously: Facebook is Receiving Sensitive Medical Information From Hospital Websites – the Markup
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Thursday August 04 2022, @12:38AM (2 children)
Intentionally violating HIPAA regulations? This doesn't warrant a 5 million dollar fine. It doesn't warrant a 50 million dollar fine. Let's jump two more orders of magnitude, and start considerations at 5 billion dollars. I'll entertain the idea of bumping that up to 50 billion. Congress needs to get involved, hold another hearing or six, and get in on burning everyone, including Zuch, all executives who have ever touched the medical data collection, and the company. Name and shame everyone, and punish them like rented mules. Then pass laws that will make my 50 billion dollar fine suggestion above look like child's play.
Just fucking BURN THEM!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 04 2022, @05:22AM
(Score: 4, Funny) by Opportunist on Thursday August 04 2022, @06:57AM
They could crucify Zuck and put it on Twitch to recover the cost.
I'm fairly sure people would want to pay good money to see that.