Florida health network sued for sharing PHI with Facebook
Another healthcare organization is being sued for allegedly sharing private health information on patients with online advertisers, namely Facebook and its parent company, Meta.
A lawsuit filed in Florida Southern District Court accused the Palm Beach Health Network Physicians Group of utilizing Meta’s Pixel code on its website to gather personal data for the purpose of targeted advertising. According to the complaint, sensitive personal information was being sent to the third-party from Palm Beach Health’s patient portal, including searches made by patients, specifics on their appointments, medical test results, and details on their diagnoses.
The lawsuit claims the health system violated patient privacy laws, namely HIPAA. The plaintiff in the case, Ron Prosky, said he used Palm Beach Health’s website and began seeing targeted ads related to his undisclosed medical condition.
He is seeking damages and punitive fines as a remedy. Prosky and his attorneys allege the use of Pixel was not disclosed, even in the privacy policy on Palm Beach Health’s website.
Pixel gathers data—including personally identifiable information—on users, tracking their web activity and IP addresses through cookies to serve up ads. Typically, people cannot opt-out of this tracking and it can be hard to avoid without downloading browser add-ons to block it.
The lawsuit accuses Palm Beach Health of knowingly using the code and disregarding patient privacy.
A common problem
Last month, Atrium Health in North Carolina was sued in nearly identical circumstances, with two plaintiffs claiming they received unsolicited emails and personalized ads as a result of the health system’s website using the Meta Pixel application.
Similarly, Kaiser Permanente reported to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that it was responsible for exposing personal data from 13.4 million members to third-party advertisers, namely Microsoft, Meta and Google as a result of background trackers on its website.
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.