LOUISVILLE, Ky. — In a recently filed lawsuit, the mother of a UofL Health pediatric patient claims the hospital system shares patient data with Facebook's parent company, Meta.
According to the suit, which seeks to become a class action, healthcare-related information and personal patient data are shared with Meta through the Meta Pixel.
The Meta Pixel is a tracking tool installed on some websites.
The suit, filed in March by Rhonda Blandford, said the purpose of the Pixel is to measure the effectiveness of ad targeting and marketing efforts.
The suit says that "UofL Health has transmitted thousands of their patients’ sensitive PHI to an unauthorized party—namely, Facebook— without its patients’ consent, including Plaintiff and the proposed Class Members, in violation of its duty of confidentiality to its patients, and in violation of state and federal laws."
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"Because of UofL Health’s actions, unauthorized parties now have access to UofL Health’s patients’ names, email addresses, phone numbers, other contact information, computer IP addresses emergency contact information, information provided during online check-in, medical information, information about upcoming appointments, and patient medical history," the lawsuit states.
WHAS11 reached out to UofL Health Monday.
In a statement, a spokesperson wrote:
"UofL Health highly values the privacy of its patients and abides by all laws and guidelines to protect their medical information. The accusations in this lawsuit are incorrect. All personal health information is secure, and it is not shared with Meta Pixel."
The suit makes claims of negligence, invasion of privacy, breach of contract, unjust enrichment, breach of fiduciary duty and violation of the Kentucky Consumer Protection Act.
It also seeks to be certified as a class action, on behalf of "All citizens of Kentucky whose PII and PHI was collected and transmitted by the Defendants to an unauthorized party using pixels."
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