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Dive Overview:
The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights have warned hospitals and telehealth companies about embedding online tracking technology in their websites and apps, which they say could expose consumers’ personal health data to third parties. In letters to about 130 health systems and telehealth providers, the agencies said tracking technologies such as Metapixel and Google Analytics could collect personal information about users and expose information about their health conditions, diagnoses, treatments and frequency of visits. The warning marks the regulators’ latest move regarding the health care industry’s use of tracking technology to monitor user behavior on websites. Sharing consumer health data with third parties, such as advertisers, has recently come under FTC scrutiny.
Dive Insights:
The use of tracking software is common among healthcare companies, according to surveys and media reports: One study found that the technology is used on nearly 99% of hospital websites.
A recent investigation by STAT and Markup found that many direct-to-consumer telehealth websites use these tracking tools to share sensitive user information with technology companies: For example, 49 of 50 websites shared the URLs consumers visited, 35 websites sent personal information such as names and email addresses, and 13 websites collected data about consumers’ responses to surveys.
Regulators have been cracking down on telemedicine and digital health companies that share data with third parties, warning that rights not covered by HIPAA privacy law are subject to other regulations, such as the FTC Act and health breach notification rules.
The FTC recently fined drug cost tool GoodRx, Teladoc’s mental health company BetterHelp, and fertility app Premom for sharing health data with advertisers.
“The FTC reminds companies that they must exercise extreme caution when using online tracking technologies, and we will continue to do everything in our power to protect consumers’ health information from misuse and exploitation,” Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement.
