A group of senators sent letters to three telehealth startups — Monument, Workit Health and Cerebral — to request more information on how these companies are sharing their consumer health data.
The probe comes as the senators express concern that these companies could be tracking and sharing their customers’ personally identifiable health data with social media platforms for advertising purposes, according to a Feb. 7 letter signed by U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Susan Collins, R-Maine, Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo, Becker’s reports.
“Recent reports highlight how your company shares users’ contact information and health care data that should be confidential…this information is reportedly sent to advertising platforms, along with the information needed to identify users. This data is extremely personal, and it can be used to target advertisements for services that may be unnecessary or potentially harmful physically, psychologically, or emotionally,” the senators wrote to Cerebral CEO David Mou, MD, Monument CEO Mike Russell, and Workit Health CEO Robin McIntosh. Read more.