Five months after a media investigation revealed that hospitals were feeding Meta sensitive patient information through a tracking tool on their websites, prominent systems like UPMC, Advocate Aurora, and Duke Health are still contending with the resulting legal action.
The Markup and STAT News co-published an investigation in June that found one-third of Newsweek’s top 100 U.S. hospitals were using a tracker called Meta Pixel that sends Meta, formerly known as Facebook, data whenever patients schedule doctor’s appointments. The data collected includes details about patients’ medical conditions, prescriptions, and appointments. The first lawsuit that followed the investigation — an anonymous MedStar Health System patient who sued Meta — came just days after it was published.
This week, a federal judge delivered UPMC a win by agreeing to the academic health system’s motion to move the case out of court and into arbitration. The case is now closed pending the results of the arbitration.
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