A proposed class action alleges that Steward Health Care System discloses website visitors’ personal and health information to Meta and Google without consent.
The 31-page case out of Massachusetts says that Steward Health Care System, which sees more than 2.2 million patients per year at 39 hospitals throughout the country, operates websites for its various medical facilities where patients can schedule doctor appointments or obtain information about medical conditions, medical services, doctors and specialists. Unbeknownst to visitors, Steward has installed onto its websites invisible programming code that automatically shares the precise contents of consumers’ website interactions with Meta and Google, the lawsuit alleges, Class Action reports.
According to the suit, Steward has violated federal and state privacy laws by disclosing patients’ highly sensitive, personal medical information without consent. The complaint contends that patients reasonably expected their communications to remain confidential, especially since Steward’s privacy policy fails to mention that it discloses patients’ data to third parties and explicitly states that it is “required by law to protect the privacy of any medical information that identifies you.”
Despite Steward’s acknowledgment that it is prohibited from selling patients’ medical information without their written authorization, the healthcare network receives compensation from Meta and Google in the form of enhanced marketing services in exchange for the data it shares, the filing alleges. Read more.
