Feds Hit BetterHelp With $8M Fine Over Patient Data Sharing Lapses

The Federal Trade Commission has taken steps to sanction online counseling service BetterHelp, Inc. which it says shared sensitive healthcare data inappropriately. This is the latest move by the FTC to crack down on healthcare organizations that share healthcare data inappropriately.

This time, the FTC has issued a proposed order demanding BetterHelp stop sharing consumers’ health data.  BetterHelp offers online counseling across several names, including BetterHelp Counseling, Faithful Counseling brand focused on Christians, Teen Counseling and LGBTQ-focused Pride Counseling.

The agency is asking BetterHelp for $7.8 million to settle charges that it shared sensitive health data, including data on consumers’ mental health challenges, with third parties including Facebook and Snapchat.

BetterHelp allegedly made this data available for use in adverting despite previous promises to keep such data private, according to the FTC proposed order. The agency reports that the data included consumers’ email addresses, IP addresses and health questionnaire information, which was turned over to advertising platforms that also included Criteo and Pinterest.

Marking the first time the FTC has done so, the agency will return funds to consumers whose health data was compromised. While this aspect of the proposal hasn’t gotten a lot of attention, it could prove to be a game changer as consumers become aware of the extent of the damages they may have suffered.

Going forward, the order would limit the extent to which BetterHelp can share consumer data. It would also ban BetterHelp from sharing consumers’ personal information with certain third parties for re-targeting, which is the process of re-targeting, the process of targeting advertising content to consumers who had previously visited BetterHelp’s website or used its app, including those who had never been a BetterHelp customer.

This filing follows up on a February FTC order citing telehealth and prescription drug discount provider GoodRx for sharing sensitive consumer data with several advertising platforms, violating its own privacy promises to consumers.

The FTC has filed a proposed order demanding $1.5 million in civil penalties from GoodRx to settle charges that it failed to let consumers know about unauthorized disclosures of their data to a list of advertising platforms which included Facebook and Google. According to the company, more than 55 million consumers have visited or used GoodRx’s website since 2017.

The only advertiser publicly coming under fire for its role in these deals is Meta, the parent company of Facebook, which has struggled with allegations that it has engaged in improper collection and sales of sensitive patient health information.

About the author

Anne Zieger

Anne Zieger is a healthcare journalist who has written about the industry for 30 years. Her work has appeared in all of the leading healthcare industry publications, and she's served as editor in chief of several healthcare B2B sites.

   

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