Lawmaker Presses Facebook To Explain Sensitive Health Data Collection  

Facebook is continuing to deal with the fallout from a data privacy issue that saw the company receiving sensitive medical information from hospital websites. According to reports, that information included medical conditions, reasons for the appointment, provider names, contact details, and more. Now, Senator Mark Warner wants Facebook to explain how and why it’s collecting this private data.

The information was sent to Facebook through its Meta Pixel tool, which gathered patient info through portal log-ins without their consent. In his letter, Warner wrote that he fears “these continuing privacy violations and harmful uses of health data could become the new status quo in health care and public health.” He also noted that this practice violates Meta’s own policies, which state that the company doesn’t want websites sending it sensitive information.

“Yet, in this most recent case and as we have seen previously, Meta is continuing to access this highly sensitive information,” Warner continued. “How does Meta handle sensitive information that it receives from third parties that violate its business guidelines?”

Crucially, some of these patients say that this data has been used to target advertising at them, which would be an even worse violation if true. Time will tell if Facebook leadership actually responds to this request, but at the very least the public is now more aware of how their private data can fall into the hands of the company without their knowledge.




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