Meta Platforms must face medical privacy class action
(www.reuters.com)
from L4s@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world on 10 Sep 2023 10:00
https://lemmy.world/post/4791311
from L4s@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world on 10 Sep 2023 10:00
https://lemmy.world/post/4791311
Meta Platforms must face medical privacy class action::A U.S. federal judge said Meta Platforms must face a lawsuit claiming that it violated the medical privacy of patients who were treated by hospitals and other healthcare providers that used its Meta Pixel tracking tool.
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This is the best summary I could come up with:
U.S. District Judge William Orrick in San Francisco said the plaintiffs could pursue claims that Meta violated a federal wiretap law and a California privacy law, and violated its own contractual promises governing user privacy on Facebook.
In a 26-page decision on Thursday, the judge said the case, based on the evidence so far, “does not negate the plausible allegations that sensitive healthcare information is intentionally captured and transmitted to Meta.”
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for all Facebook users whose health information was obtained by Meta.
Neither Meta nor lawyers for the Menlo Park, California-based company responded on Friday to requests for immediate comment.
When the litigation began in June 2020, lawyers for one plaintiff said they had found at least 664 hospitals and other healthcare providers that used Meta Pixel.
Orrick, however, said it was not clear whether Meta did enough to stop the transmission of patient details, or might be excused because healthcare providers actually consented to it.
The original article contains 355 words, the summary contains 161 words. Saved 55%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
How does a free news service have a paywall?
Idk but Reuters is an easy one to get around of your browser has a reader mode (like Firefox)
Yes, and even easier with their app. It just seems strange.
Try it through 12ft. reuters.com/…/meta-platforms-must-face-medical-pr…
???
12ft.io/proxy?q=https://www.reuters.com/legal/met…
Sorry, I forgot using the share menu copies the original link instead of the 12ft.io one in my address bar for some reason.
Thanks. It’s going to be an interesting case at trial.
Why were hospital websites using a tracking pixel? That’s on them. Like, Meta is scummy company, but whose choice was it to put a tracking pixel, whoever it’s from, on a hospital website?
I wonder if it was the hospitals that put the pixel there. Portals are usually outsourced to software vendors. If so many hospitals did it it might be the vendor’s stupid choice.
If you use the Meta-provided “find us on Facebook” icon on your Web site, it works like a tracking pixel.
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This spells disaster for other corporate spyware like the new Chrome (and chromium) browsers.