Class Action Seeks to Bar Genesis Health From Disclosing Patient Information to Facebook
Plaintiff Jane Doe brought a privacy class action Tuesday in U.S. District Court for Central Illinois in Rock Island to address Genesis Health System’s “improper practice” of disclosing her confidential information to Meta, and “potentially others,” via “tracking technologies” used…
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on the Genesis website. Information about a person’s physical and mental health “is among the most confidential and sensitive information in our society,” said the complaint (docket 4:23-cv-04209). The “mishandling” of medical information “can have serious consequences,” including discrimination in the workplace or denial of insurance coverage, it said. When Doe and her potential class members used the Genesis website and online platforms, “they thought they were communicating exclusively with their trusted healthcare provider,” it said. “Unbeknownst to them,” Genesis embedded tracking technologies from Facebook, Google and others into its website and online platforms, “surreptitiously forcing” Doe and the class members “to transmit intimate details about their medical treatment to third parties without their consent,” it said. After receiving that information from Genesis, Facebook “processes it, analyzes it, and assimilates it into its own massive datasets, before selling access to this data in the form of targeted advertisements,” said the complaint. Google and other companies “process data in a similar manner and use it to build marketing and other data profiles, allowing for targeted online advertising,” it said. Genesis could have chosen not to use the tracking technologies, or it could have configured them “to limit the information that it communicated to Facebook” and other platforms, but it didn’t, it said. Doe has been a Genesis patient for 30 years, and uses its website to search for doctors and schedule appointments, having last done so in September, it said. By failing to receive the “requisite consent” to disclose Doe’s private information to Facebook and others, Genesis violated its agreements with the plaintiff, its policies and the law, it said. Since using the Genesis website, Doe “has been targeted by online advertisements for prescription medications,” it added. Doe's complaint alleges that Genesis violated Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act privacy standards, and those of the FTC and the Department of Health and Human Services. She also alleges violations of the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Practices Act. She seeks “equitable relief” enjoining Genesis from engaging in the “wrongful conduct” described in her complaint.