Meta Platforms, Inc., formerly known as Facebook, Inc., offers something called the Meta Pixel that allows the company to track Facebook users when they are in places on the Internet other than the Facebook platform and gather information about them. The complaint alleges that as a part of this tracking, it is engaging in unlawful activity: “Facebook is using the Meta Pixel to intercept communications between patients and their healthcare providers.”
The class for this action is all persons who communicated with, or submitted information to, a healthcare provider online or a website or application where the Meta Pixel was installed.
The Pixel is a bit of code that can be invisibly installed on a website to collect information. It logs the actions of visitors to the website which the owners of the website can later view on their Meta Pixel page. Facebook tells advertisers that the Pixel “can help you better understand the effectiveness of your advertising and the actions people take on your site…”
“Upon information and belief,” the complaint alleges, “when a person takes an action on a website with the Meta Pixel, the Pixel simultaneously transmit that information to Facebook.”
A June 2022 article in the Markup alleges that the Pixel is installed on many websites for hospitals and “has been collecting patients’ sensitive health information—including details about their medical conditions, prescriptions and doctor’s appointments—and sending it to Facebook.”
The complaint alleges, “Facebook promised users that Facebook ‘require[s]’ other websites to have the ‘lawful rights to collect, use, and share your data before providing any to us’ through the Meta Pixel. Yet, Facebook failed to require that hospitals and healthcare providers gain the necessary patient authorizations required by Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (‘HIPAA’) before sharing protected health information with Facebook.”
The information picked up by the Pixel on hospital appointment pages, the complaint alleges, includes the name of the doctor, the medical condition for which the patients wants treatment, the doctor’s field of medicine, and personal information about the patient like name and address. For certain health systems, the complaint claims, the information also includes patients’ medications, their allergic reactions, and details about coming appointments with doctors.
The complaint alleges that healthcare providers do not have the right to share healthcare information with Facebook because that information is protected by HIPAA. It claims that Facebook breached its agreements with its users “by failing to require that hospitals and healthcare providers gain the necessary patient authorizations before sharing any patient protected health information with Facebook.”
Article Type: LawsuitTopic: Contract, Privacy
Most Recent Case Event
Facebook Meta Pixel Collection of HIPAA-Protected Data Complaint
August 15, 2022
Meta Platforms, Inc., formerly known as Facebook, Inc., offers something called the Meta Pixel that allows the company to track Facebook users when they are in places on the Internet other than the Facebook platform and gather information about them. The complaint alleges that as a part of this tracking, it is engaging in unlawful activity: “Facebook is using the Meta Pixel to intercept communications between patients and their healthcare providers.”
Facebook Meta Pixel Collection of HIPAA-Protected Data ComplaintCase Event History
Facebook Meta Pixel Collection of HIPAA-Protected Data Complaint
August 15, 2022
Meta Platforms, Inc., formerly known as Facebook, Inc., offers something called the Meta Pixel that allows the company to track Facebook users when they are in places on the Internet other than the Facebook platform and gather information about them. The complaint alleges that as a part of this tracking, it is engaging in unlawful activity: “Facebook is using the Meta Pixel to intercept communications between patients and their healthcare providers.”
Facebook Meta Pixel Collection of HIPAA-Protected Data Complaint