- Chief Compliance Officer and VP of Legal Affairs, Arrow Electronics
By 
Adrianne Appel2023-02-09T21:55:00
A bipartisan group of senators is leaning on three telehealth firms accused of tracking and sharing patients’ sensitive personal information with advertising platforms like Google and Facebook.
Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) sent letters dated Feb. 2 to the chief executive officers of Cerebral, Monument, and Workit Health regarding a report the companies are tracking and sharing patients’ personally identifiable health information with advertisers. The senators asked the companies to reply to a series of questions by Feb. 10.
The letters were sent a day after the announcement of a $1.5 million settlement telehealth company GoodRx agreed to with the Federal Trade Commission over allegations the former shared personal health data with third parties for advertising purposes in violation of the Health Breach Notification Rule. Under the proposed settlement, the first concerning the rule, GoodRx agreed to revamp its user consent and data retention practices.
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The Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission proposed telehealth company Cerebral pay a total of $7 million for its alleged sharing of patient data and deceptive business practices in violation of the FTC Act.
The Federal Trade Commission proposed requiring online counseling service BetterHelp to pay $7.8 million as part of a settlement addressing charges it shared clients’ personal health data with Facebook, Snapchat, and other third parties for advertising purposes.
Banner Health agreed to pay $1.25 million as part of a settlement with the Department of Health and Human Services addressing violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act Security Rule regarding a 2016 data breach.
The European Union’s Digital Markets Act is forcing many Big Tech companies to postpone the launch of artificial intelligence-powered features, like Apple Intelligence, over user privacy and data security concerns.
Location-based dating apps are not doing enough to protect user privacy, with exact location and other personal data being exploited by stalkers and bad actors, a recent analysis found.
Michael Macko, deputy director of enforcement at the California Privacy Protection Agency, described priorities for the agency now and in the near future during a recent board meeting.
