Class Action Lawsuit Claims Banner Health Website Visitors’ Data Secretly Shared with Facebook, Google

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A proposed class action lawsuit accuses Banner Health of illegally sharing website visitors’ private data with several third parties, including Facebook and Google, without consent.

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The 87-page privacy lawsuit alleges the Phoenix-based healthcare system—which operates medical facilities in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada, Wyoming and Alaska—has intentionally incorporated tracking technology into BannerHealth.com. According to the suit, the web-tracking devices were embedded to collect and transmit consumers’ personal data to third parties, which, in turn, use the information for marketing purposes.

The case claims that Banner Health’s secret use of the tracking technology—including Facebook’s Meta pixel, Google Analytics and other tools provided by companies such as LinkedIn and Microsoft—plainly violates state and federal privacy laws, which prohibit healthcare providers from disclosing personal and health data to unrelated third parties without express consent.

Banner Health, by embedding tracking codes into its website, has basically “planted a bug” on visitors’ web browsers that forces them to share their confidential information with Facebook and other unauthorized third-party companies without their knowledge, the complaint contends.

Per the filing, visitors use BannerHealth.com to access the patient portal, find a doctor, research health conditions and treatment services, communicate with their providers, pay bills and more. However, unbeknownst to consumers, Banner Health discloses the sensitive data they enter into the website, including search queries, medical details, content viewed, buttons clicked and other private information, the lawsuit charges.

The suit further asserts that the personal data intercepted by third parties via the BannerHealth.com web-trackers is hardly anonymous. By way of example, the case says that the Meta pixel apparently shares user information alongside an individual’s IP address and Facebook ID, a unique identifier that allows a consumer’s health data to be linked with their social media profile.

The complaint alleges Banner Health does not disclose to visitors the presence of the tracking devices on its website, nor obtains authorization before sharing their confidential data with third parties.

The filing contends that, overall, website users “simply do not anticipate that their trusted healthcare provider will send personal health information … or other confidential medical information collected via its webpages to a hidden third party—let alone Facebook, which has a sordid history of privacy violations in pursuit of ever-increasing advertising revenue—without the patients’ consent.”

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone whose private information was disclosed by Banner Health to third parties through the Meta pixel and related technology without authorization.

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