A lawsuit has been filed against popular retailer Costco, alleging the company shared its members’ private communications and health information with Meta, the parent company of Facebook, without their knowledge or consent. The Seattle Times was the first to cover the story.
The lawsuit, filed by four California residents, is seeking class-action status. The claimants say Costco utilized the Meta Pixel data tracker on its website's healthcare section, effectively providing Meta access to sensitive information about the health and lives of Costco customers.
Despite representing its website as a secure platform, Costco failed to disclose that it shared patient online activities and health information with Meta via Pixel, the lawsuit alleges.
Meta is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit. The social media giant said in a statement to the Seattle Times that its system can filter out sensitive data and emphasized that advertisers “should not send sensitive information about people through our business tools,” adding that “doing so is against our policies and we educate advertisers on properly setting up business tools to prevent this from occurring.”
Costco is a Meta advertiser. The retailer’s pharmacy services, including prescription refills and vaccine scheduling, require users to provide personal and health information. The lawsuit argues that, while Costco claims to keep this information secure and private, the use of tracking services, including Pixel, violates users' privacy. Additionally, the lawsuit claims Costco allowed Meta to collect healthcare-related communications from its website, such as prescriptions, treatments, health insurance details and patient location.
Health data and patient information is considered a valuable commodity, the lawsuit says. Meta could easily monetize this information by selling ads to insurance companies and other clients who are targeting customers with health-related needs, including the data of the specific customers who visited the Costco healthcare website.
Last month, Costco announced a partnership with telehealth provider Sesame, offering customers $29 virtual primary care visits.
Read the original story in The Seattle Times at the link below.
Chad is an award-winning writer and editor with over 15 years of experience working in media. He has a decade-long professional background in healthcare, working as a writer and in public relations.