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.

Specifically, they're working on a settlement with the company over allegations that it used 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, and consumers can now sign up to join others taking action.

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 proposed 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.

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.

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?

There are no guarantees, but those who sign up could potentially have a claim worth $500 or more.

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