Still bad news for Metaaccused of having collected sensitive medical data by users without their consent – a great classic, to see it from a certain point of view -. Apparently, Facebook’s parent company and some US hospitals have been sued for the violation of HIPAAthe California Invasion of Privacy Act. At the center of the accusations would be the Pixel of Meta, which allows you to track user activity on portals and websites. In this way, once again, Zuckerberg’s company gets into trouble for processing its audience’s data.
Meta: the Pixel at the center of a user data breach charge
According to what was reported by the accusations against Meta, the Pixel would have collected sensitive data on patients while they visited sites of US clinics and hospitals. A clear violation of HIPAA, according to which healthcare organizations can only share data with third-party companies with the consent of patients. Apparently, however, Meta was able to access the data without any kind of permission by users. On the other hand, the nature of the Pixel allows it to collect information even in an illegitimate way.
But how was this data used? According to The Verge, the company would use them to show users well-targeted advertisements, related to treatment for heart or joint problems. A real abuse of the data provided by the hospitals. Although this shouldn’t surprise us too much, given that The Markup organization has found that 33% of US hospitals use the Meta Pixel on their website. And it would even seem that seven of these structures have installed the Pixel on password-protected portals. In short, there are all the extremes for a cause to the company. Let’s see how the situation will evolve.