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Hospitals allegedly post patients’ private information to Facebook, potentially sharing their health information with the social network via an ad tracker.
According to a study by The Markup and STAT, the tracker called Meta Pixel was available on 33 hospital websites and posted data to Facebook every time someone clicked to schedule a doctor’s appointment.
Meta Pixel refers to the computer code that allows people to track the activities of visitors on websites.
“The 33 hospitals that The Markup found when posting patient appointment details to Facebook reported collectively more than 26 million admissions and outpatients in 2020, according to the latest data from the American Hospital Association. ” “Our research was limited to more than 100 hospitals; data sharing probably affects more patients and institutions than we identified.”
In response to questions about the ad tracking tool, Facebook’s parent company Meta said that advertisers should not submit sensitive data using the tool.
“Advertisers should not submit sensitive information about people through our Business Tools,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement. “It is against our policies to do so, and we train advertisers to properly set up Business tools to prevent this from happening. Our system is designed to filter out any potentially sensitive data it can detect.”
Meta did not answer follow-up questions about how to use its tools and the functionality of hospitals’ websites.
The company said it scanned health-related data from its advertising systems, which included information about sensitive health policy, treatment of people, location of treatment, medications, mental health, reproductive health, injuries and a host of other information.
Markup researchers said they observed the Meta Pixel tool, which transmits the text of the button clicked to schedule an appointment, the doctor’s name, medical conditions selected from a drop-down menu, and search terms used to find a doctor. ”
The transmission of personally identifiable health information to Facebook may be prohibited by law, and Flagging pointed to potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
Congress is also discussing a new privacy law that could affect the transmission of a patient’s health information online. The House Energy and Commerce Committee began examining a bipartisan proposal for federal privacy law, the American Data Privacy and Protection Act, on Tuesday.
Writers of the bill include House of Representatives Frank Pallone, New Jersey Democrat, and Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Washington Republican, and Senator Roger Wicker, Mississippi Republican.
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