A class action lawsuit accuses Santa Barbara-based health system Cottage Health of allegedly wrongly allowing social media companies like Meta to view patient health information through the use of so-called tracking pixels.
Even though the federal government in July issued a warning to healthcare companies that using online tracking technologies could allow third parties to access sensitive patient information, Cottage Health "deployed tracking technologies that allowed third-party companies, such as Facebook, to
intercept visitors to and users of its websites," the lawsuit states.
The data was used to "sell targeted advertising and/or otherwise monetize the data in the ever-growing marketplace," for personal health information, the suit says.
"Unbeknownst to Users and without their authorization or informed consent, Defendant installed Facebook’s tracking tool, the Meta Pixel and other third-party tracking technologies, on its web properties in order to intercept and send Private Information to third parties such as Facebook and/or Google LLC," the lawsuit alleges.
Patients, "understandably thought they were communicating with only their trusted healthcare providers, and reasonably believed that their sensitive and private personal health information would be guarded, as promised, with the utmost care," according to the lawsuit.
It seeks a court order requiring the company to safeguard patient information, damages and attorney fees.
The plaintiffs are represented by John R. Parker Jr., David S. Almeida, Britany Kabakov and Matthew J. Langley, of Almeida Law Group, of Chicago and Sacramento.
K.S. v. Cottage Health, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, 2:23-cv-9528