Adena Health System Facing Class Action Over Alleged Disclosure of Patient Data to Facebook, Google

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A proposed class action accuses Adena Health System of unlawfully disclosing website visitors’ private data to third parties, including Facebook and Google, without consent.

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The 63-page lawsuit claims the healthcare network, which operates medical facilities in portions of Ohio, has intentionally embedded web-tracking technology into Adena.org and its MyChart patient portal. Per the suit, the tracking tools are designed to capture and share users’ information and online communications with third parties, which then use the data for targeted marketing.

The case alleges that Adena’s secret use of the web-tracking tools—which include Google Analytics and Facebook’s Meta pixel and Conversions API—violates state and federal privacy laws.

“Despite these clear laws and regulations, [Adena] has essentially planted a bug on patients’ web browsers that forced them to disclose their private and confidential communications with [the defendant] to third parties,” the complaint asserts.

According to the filing, patients can use Adena.org to access the patient portal, book appointments, research medical conditions or treatment options, communicate with their providers and more. However, unbeknownst to users, Adena shares with unauthorized third parties any personal data they enter into the website, including their health conditions, desired treatments, search queries and physicians’ details, the lawsuit contends.

What’s more, the suit charges that the private information disclosed through the tracking tools is hardly anonymous. For example, a user’s data is shared alongside their Facebook ID—a unique identifier associated with an individual’s Facebook account, the case claims. This combination of data allows third parties to “quickly and easily” link specific users to their interactions on Adena.org, the complaint relays.

The defendant does not disclose to users the presence of the tracking technology on its website, nor does it acquire consent from consumers to share their sensitive information with unrelated third parties, the filing points out.

The case argues that “patients simply do not anticipate or expect that their trusted healthcare provider will send personal health information or confidential medical information collected via its webpages to a hidden third party—let alone Facebook and Google, which both have a sordid history of privacy violations in pursuit of ever-increasing advertising revenue—without the patients’ consent.”

By “knowingly” installing these tools on its website and patient portal, Adena has violated patients’ protected privacy rights and unjustly profited from the disclosure of their data, the complaint alleges.

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone in the United States who is or was a patient of Adena Health System or any of its affiliates, used Adena.org and had their private information disclosed to a third party without authorization.

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