Class Action Alleges LifeStance Health Discloses Web Visitors’ Info to Facebook, Google

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A proposed class action claims LifeStance Health has unlawfully disclosed to third parties the personal and health information of millions of website visitors.

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The 70-page lawsuit alleges that the mental healthcare company has installed tracking tools on LifeStance.com to secretly monitor users and send their data to Facebook and Google without consent. According to the case, LifeStance’s disclosures expose a consumer’s patient status, conditions and treatments, physicians, appointment requests and booking information, locations or facilities where treatment is sought, and which web pages they viewed.

“It is not difficult to imagine what use a social media company might have for tracking a person who is struggling with their mental health and how often they seek therapy,” the case reads, citing a leaked Facebook sales pitch from 2017 in which the company boasted of how its algorithm could identify and target teenagers who were feeling “insecure,” “worthless,” “overwhelmed” or “anxious.”

Although access to this valuable mental health data helps Facebook and Google deliver targeted advertising, LifeStance also benefits from the tracking tools employed on its website, the complaint alleges. Per the suit, LifeStance receives from the companies analytics about its advertisements and tools to target people who have visited its website.

The complaint contends that LifeStance.com uses a tracking tool known as the Meta pixel, a snippet of code that functions “much like a traditional wiretap.” The suit stresses that the pixel not only tracks and transmits data packets containing visitors’ interactions with the website but also collects personal identifiers, including cookies and patients’ IP addresses, that allow Facebook to match the data to specific individuals.

In addition, the pixel reveals a patient’s Facebook ID, a unique set of numbers assigned to each Facebook user that anyone could use to “quickly and easily” view a corresponding Facebook profile, the filing says.

The complaint claims that patients who visited LifeStance.com reasonably thought they were communicating only with their trusted healthcare providers, especially since the company’s privacy policy states that it must obtain a consumer’s written authorization before disclosing their personal information for marketing purposes.

Ultimately, the case contends that LifeStance was obligated under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to keep patients’ medical information secure and confidential.

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone in the United States whose private information was disclosed to a third party without authorization or consent through the pixel on LifeStance.com.

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