Meta Faces Legal Firestorm As Hospitals Cite Its Pixel Tool In Health Data Breaches

Two health systems have become the latest healthcare organizations to name a web tracking tool created by Meta (formerly Facebook) as responsible for their data breach.  This comes as the social media giant faces a growing number of lawsuits alleging that the tool improperly collects and sells sensitive patient health information. Both of the recent incidents, which were announced in mid-October, involved a Meta tracking tool known as Meta Pixel. Meta Pixel is a snippet of JavaScript code that allows companies to track visitor activity on their website. It works by loading a small library of functions that companies can use whenever a site visitor takes an action. What makes the tool questionable is that in addition to tracking web activity, it sends some of the data it gathers to Meta. According to research by The Markup,  Meta Pixel is currently in wide use. To get a sense of how widespread use of the tool is within hospitals, the site tested websites for Newsweek’s top 100 hospitals in America. The researchers found that 33 of the sites had Meta Pixel in place, and that seven major health systems were using the tool within patient portals. However, Meta is facing a backlash related to the data Meta Pixel sends home, as well as how it uses the data. One hospital chain which blames Meta Pixel for a data breach is Advocate Aurora Health, which operates 26 hospitals across Wisconsin and Illinois. AAH just informed its patients that due to an incorrectly configured version ...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - Category: Information Technology Authors: Tags: C-Suite Leadership Healthcare IT Hospital - Health System Security and Privacy Advocate Aurora Health Dignity Health Facebook LiveWell Medstar Health System Meta Pixel MyChart Northwestern Memorial Hospital Novant Health UCSF Med Source Type: blogs