Legal Investigation: Did GoodRx Violate Users’ Privacy by Tracking Medical Data?

Attorneys working with ClassAction.org are gathering consumers to take action against GoodRx over potential privacy violations.

GoodRx has been accused of using tracking tools on GoodRx.com and its corresponding mobile app to collect users’ personal and medical information and secretly pass along the data to Facebook for advertising purposes. The company was ordered by the Federal Trade Commission to pay a $1.5 million penalty and notify consumers that their information was shared with third parties. Now, attorneys are looking to gather users to take action against GoodRx over potential privacy violations.

How Could GoodRx Have Violated Users’ Privacy?

Many website operators, possibly including GoodRx, use tracking tools to gather information about how consumers use their websites. One such tool is called the Meta pixel (formerly the Facebook pixel), which is a snippet of code that can be embedded on a webpage and programmed to track certain actions users take, such as the content they view, buttons they click and, importantly, anything they type into a form or search box.

The pixel can also track each user’s Facebook ID, a unique identifier that can be used to locate a person’s Facebook profile. Thus, the pixel can allow both the website operator and Facebook to match specific Facebook users with their online activity, which facilitates targeted advertising.

Tracking consumers’ online actions through the pixel can potentially be problematic if a website operator collects protected data, such as medical information, without consent. In fact, an investigation published by The Markup in June 2022 found that 33 of the top 100 hospitals in the U.S. were using the Facebook pixel on their websites and potentially sharing patients’ private medical information with Meta. This led to a slew of lawsuits being filed against hospitals over potential privacy violations.

GoodRx Accused of Privacy Violations in FTC Action, Lawsuit

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed an enforcement action against GoodRx in February that accused the company of failing to notify users of its unauthorized disclosure of their sensitive health information to advertisers and other third parties, including Facebook.

The FTC’s complaint stated, among other claims, that GoodRx used Facebook’s ad targeting platform to match specific users to their personal health information (such as their prescriptions and health conditions) and designed campaigns to target them with advertisements based on that information, “all of which was visible to Facebook,” according to the complaint.

Under the order, GoodRx will be required to pay a $1.5 million civil penalty for violations of the FTC’s Health Breach Notification Rule and prohibited from sharing users’ health data for advertising purposes. The company was also ordered to send an email to users containing this notice and post information about the FTC action on its websites and apps.

In the days following the FTC’s announcement of the enforcement action, GoodRx was also hit with a proposed class action lawsuit accusing the company of privacy violations.

Am I Signing Up for a Lawsuit?

No, by filling out the form linked to on this page, you’re signing up to participate in something called “mass arbitration,” which is different from a class action lawsuit and takes place outside of court.

GoodRx specifies in its terms of use that consumers are required to resolve any claims against the company through arbitration, a method of alternative dispute resolution that allows two parties to resolve a matter before an independent arbitrator instead of a judge or jury.

Mass arbitration involves hundreds or thousands of consumers filing individual arbitration claims against the same company at the same time.

How Much Does This Cost?

It costs nothing to sign up, and the attorneys handling your claim will only get paid if they win money on your behalf. Their payment will come as a percentage of the amount you’re awarded.

If they don’t win your claim, you don’t pay.

How Much Could I Get?

It’s not guaranteed that you’ll win, but those who sign up for the mass arbitration could potentially have a claim worth $200 or more.

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