The Federal Trade Commission took aim at prescription drug coupon site GoodRx this week in an early attempt to crack down on the unfettered sharing of consumers’ health data for advertising. It was the first time the agency had gone after such a health data violation.
But with the vast amounts of patient information now being mined and shared online, it’ll be far from the last.
In the three years since a Consumer Reports investigation revealed that GoodRx was leaking users’ data to Facebook and Google, the world of medicine has moved online — and the use of data-gathering tools like those deployed by GoodRx has significantly expanded. Scores of new telehealth startups — and big pharmaceutical companies — are now using detailed health information to target ads for virtual care and prescription medications to potential customers. Nearly every big tech company, from Meta to Google to TikTok, has developed trackers these companies can use to follow their customers’ browsing and buying patterns online.
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