The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) have issued a direct warning to more than 100 hospitals, health systems and telehealth firms alerting them to the “risks and concerns about the use of technologies, such as the Meta/Facebook pixel and Google Analytics, that can track a user’s online activities.”

On July 19, the agencies announced they sent a joint letter to “approximately” 130 entities.^[1] The letter is meant to “draw…attention to serious privacy and security risks related to the use of online tracking technologies that may be present on [their] website or mobile application (app) and impermissibly disclosing consumers’ sensitive personal health information to third parties,” they wrote.^[2]

An OCR spokesperson told RRC the agencies “are not planning to make available the list of entities who received the letters at this time.” When asked why health plans and provider groups—which also likely have such trackers on their websites—were not contacted, the spokesperson said FTC and OCR “selected the entities based on research and reporting that has been done in this area.”

“The letters were sent to hospitals and hospital systems, as well as telehealth companies, that we believe may have or have had tracking technologies on their websites or apps and (sic) impermissibly disclosing consumers’ sensitive health information to third parties,” the spokesperson said.