San Francisco US District Judge William Orrick has said that Meta Platforms should face a lawsuit alleging that it infringed upon the medical privacy of patients who were treated at hospitals that used the Meta Pixel tracking tool.
The Meta Pixel is a snippet of code inserted into websites, used to decode key performance metrics generated by a particular platform. The Meta Pixel helps businesses with a Facebook page determine and improve metrics.
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The suit alleges that, when using patient portals, Meta logged sensitive information about their health. The collected data was then monetised through Meta’s targeted advertising.
The US Federal Judge said plaintiffs could sue Meta for violating federal wiretap law and California privacy law.
Litigation began in 2020 and lawyers identified 664 hospitals and other healthcare providers who used Meta Pixel.
Meta has faced a series of privacy lawsuits and fines in recent months.
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By GlobalDataIn May, the EU fined Meta a record $1.3bn for violating data privacy rules. The Irish Data Protection Commission (IDPC) announced that Meta had failed to properly protect EU Facebook account data from US spy agencies.
Norwegian regulator Datatilsynet imposed a fine against Meta in August for using behavioural advertising, a model which harvests user data to tailor advertising. The 1m Krone ($94,313) per day fine will be imposed until 3 November, unless the injunction is granted.
