Facebook (Meta) does not give up its passion for collecting personal data. According to some reports, the company use hospitals to obtain patients’ sensitive medical information such as their medical conditions, prescriptions, and doctor’s appointments. Here are the details of the scandal…
Hospital websites are sending medical information to Facebook
According to research conducted by The Markup, 33 of the top 100 hospitals in the United States use a tracking tool called Meta Pixel on their websites. This plugin gives access to analytics about Facebook and Instagram ads but also tracks the site on which it is installed.
Meta Pixel keeps track of everything on the website and sends the information directly to Facebook. On many websites this is an insignificant detail, but on hospital websites contain sensitive medical data of patients. And sharing this kind of information is against the law. So, the company is technically breaking the law.
A Meta spokesperson told The Markup that Facebook has filters that detect and remove sensitive health data sent from businesses. However, this would not be the first time this company broke the law. Now that the scandal is revealed, authorities will likely go after Meta.
In addition, seven hospitals removed the Meta Pixel from their websites. This number will increase in the upcoming days. However, Meta‘s insistence on personal data does not seem to end. As you know, Facebook has been accused of similar reasons before. Even the company’s founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, had to testify in the Senate, but I guess ‘old habits die hard’.
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