A recent lawsuit alleges Palm Beach Health Network shared "highly sensitive personal information" with Facebook’s parent company, Meta, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
The health network is accused of sharing code from its website with the company, allowing Facebook to target patients with personalized ads based on the sensitive information.
The lawsuit alleges Palm Beach Health Network installed Facebook’s Meta Pixel and other invisible third-party tracking technology on its websites to intercept patients’ information “with the express purpose” of disclosing the information.
The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in West Palm Beach.
The health network’s websites are intended to serve as a one-stop shop for patients’ services. That includes reviewing medical records and making appointments.
The lead plaintiff alleges that he started seeing ads on Facebook about his "particular medical conditions and treatments." after he used the Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center website and patient portal.
The medical center and health system are listed as defendants in the lawsuit.
If true, the accusations would be violations of the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, known as HIPAA.
Palm Beach Health Network, a division of Tenet Health Care Corp., is comprised of six hospitals and care centers, a large multispecialty physician group and other health care facilities in the county.
According to its website, it is the Palm Beach County's largest health care network.
Information from WLRN's Elise Gregg was used in this report.
