Judge advances swath of medical privacy class action against Meta

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — A federal judge will allow large portions of a class action filed by plaintiffs who claim their medical privacy was violated by Meta’s Pixel tracking tool to proceed.

In their complaint, the plaintiffs say Meta knew or should have known that its Pixel tracking tool was being used on hospital websites to collect the private medical information of users. The data then went to Meta, which used the data to create personalized ads the plaintiffs say. At least 664 hospital systems or medical provider web properties sent patient data to Meta through the Pixel tool.

The collection of this data — in the absence of a HIPAA authorization — violates Meta’s own privacy promise to its users, the plaintiffs say. Meta had promised users that the Pixel and other tracking tools required partners to have the lawful right to collect and share the data before providing the data to Meta.