(ProsperNews.net) – A lawsuit against grocery chain Costco accuses the company of sharing medical data with Meta – the owner of Facebook. Four Californian customers filed the suit, saying Costco uses Meta’s Pixel, a tool embedded in websites to collect visitor data, allowing Meta access to their confidential medical information.
The software permits Meta to access data on prescriptions, IP addresses, and vaccination status, and while Costco insists all of this remains private, the customers are unconvinced and say their trust has been breached. “By secretly recording and transmitting data to Meta — without the user’s knowledge or consent — Pixel acts much like a traditional wiretap,” the lawsuit states.
The case came about because customers noticed that after filling out required fields related to their health on the Costco website, targeted adverts began arriving at their email accounts and through other online facilities.
The plaintiffs filed their suit at the Washington Western District Court and sought undisclosed damages.
Most lawsuits related to privacy breaches are connected to medical care, and of the 58 confidentiality suits filed in 2021, 43 were healthcare-based. Even the famous Mayo Clinic has found itself on the sticky end of litigation.
In the 2020 case, a patient complained that a former employee had accessed intimate photos of her body and gathered information about her medical history, as well as personal data such as her home address. Following the initial suit, two more Mayo Clinic patients came forward, saying pictures of them in a state of undress had also been inappropriately accessed.
Technology experts acknowledge the downside of the internet-based data systems that now dominate the health market and almost every business sphere. Companies are at risk of confidentiality breaches and of lawsuits that can result in the loss of millions of dollars in compensation payments. The largest fine ever issued was against Chinese company Didi Global, which was forced to pay $1.19 billion after breaching healthcare privacy laws.
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