Security News > 2022 > July > Meta, US hospitals sued for using healthcare data to target ads
A class action lawsuit has been filed in the Northern District of California against Meta, the UCSF Medical Center, and the Dignity Health Medical Foundation, alleging that the organizations are unlawfully collecting sensitive healthcare data about patients for targeted advertising.
According to the lawsuit, neither the hospitals nor Meta informs the patients about the data collection, no user consents are requested, and there is no visible indication of this process.
The Meta Pixel is a piece of code that can be injected into any website to aid with visitor profiling, data collection, and targeted advertising.
It takes up the space of a single pixel, hence the name and stealthiness, and helps collect data such as button clicks, scrolling patterns, data entered in forms, IP addresses, and more.
Both Meta and the healthcare providers are accused of knowing that their data collection operation was unlawful, yet they continued to do it and concealed it from the tracked individuals.
In conclusion, the plaintiffs, on behalf of anyone in a similar situation, seek claims for relief relevant to the invasion of privacy, violation of medical information confidentiality, unjust enrichment, breach of contract, Computer Data Access and Fraud Act, and also the Federal Wiretap Act.
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