Class Action Claims Southern Illinois Healthcare Discloses Website Visitors’ Data to Facebook, Others Without Consent [UPDATE]

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The operators of Southern Illinois Healthcare (SIH) face a proposed class action over their alleged disclosure of website visitors’ private information to Facebook and other third parties without users’ knowledge or consent.

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The 46-page lawsuit out of Illinois claims that a tracking tool known as the Meta pixel on SIH.net and the healthcare provider’s web-based tools and services secretly collects data about consumers as they navigate the platforms. According to the suit, this invisible piece of code tracks and sends to Facebook users’ confidential interactions with the website, including which pages they visited, the buttons they clicked and any search queries they submitted.

“Such information allows a third party (e.g., Facebook) to know that a specific patient was seeking confidential medical care,” the case stresses, adding that these unauthorized parties can use this data to reasonably infer which specific type of medical condition a patient suffers from, among other private health information.

The lawsuit claims that the Meta pixel also transmits personally identifiable information, such as IP addresses and Facebook IDs, that allows third parties to link a patient’s identity to their online activity. A Facebook ID, the case relays, is connected to an individual’s Facebook profile and allows the social media giant to locate their page.

The complaint alleges Facebook uses the data it gathers from SIH’s platforms to create targeted advertisements based on the personal and medical information consumers unwittingly disclosed to the healthcare provider. Per the filing, the defendants also profit from the unauthorized disclosure of patients’ data by using it for marketing purposes.

In addition to Facebook, the defendants have installed tracking technology on SIH.net and its online platforms to transmit consumers’ information to Google, ShareThis, Mailchimp and CallRail, the suit claims.

“When [the plaintiff] and Class Members used [the defendants’] Website and Online Platforms, they thought were [sic] communicating exclusively with their trusted healthcare provider,” the case says, claiming that at no point does SIH warn website and web-based services users that their online communications would be shared with third parties.

In fact, SIH’s privacy policy explicitly states that it must secure “written permission prior to using your protected health information to send you any marketing materials,” the filing says. However, in violation of their own contractual promises and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the defendants have failed to obtain consumers’ consent before disclosing their private data, the complaint contends.

The lawsuit seeks to cover any Illinois citizens whose private information was disclosed by Southern Illinois Healthcare to third parties through the Meta pixel and related technology without authorization.

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