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Meta Faces Lawsuit for Allegedly Collecting Patient Health Data Without Consent

posted by hubie on Wednesday August 03 2022, @11:53PM   Printer-friendly
from the we-are-(again)-very-sorry-and-promise-to-do-better dept.

upstart writes:

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

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Barenflimski on Thursday August 04 2022, @05:23AM (3 children)

    by Barenflimski (6836) on Thursday August 04 2022, @05:23AM (#1264881)

    Fuck Meta.
    Fuck Zuck.

    The only thing any of these data brokers are good at, is screwing you.

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  • (Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Thursday August 04 2022, @08:16AM (1 child)

    by NotSanguine (285) <{NotSanguine} {at} {SoylentNews.Org}> on Thursday August 04 2022, @08:16AM (#1264893) Homepage Journal

    The only thing any of these data brokers are good at, is screwing you.

    And it will be the best 16 seconds of your life -- every time.

    --
    No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr

    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday August 04 2022, @02:34PM

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Thursday August 04 2022, @02:34PM (#1264918) Journal

      As they strive for ever greater performance and efficiency, I'm confident they will improve upon their 16 second time.

      --
      To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.

  • (Score: 2) by bmimatt on Thursday August 04 2022, @09:22PM

    by bmimatt (5050) on Thursday August 04 2022, @09:22PM (#1264979)

    I suppose it's safe to assume here, that the 'pixel' (javascript) is reading all form data and possibly other DOM elements. Could it just grab the whole DOM? Probably. Likely. Certainly, since it's Zuckface's 'product'.