Torrance Memorial Medical Center Discloses Website Visitors’ Info to Facebook, Class Action Alleges

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A proposed class action alleges California’s Torrance Memorial Medical Center transmits website visitors’ personal and health information to Facebook without consent.

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The 76-page lawsuit claims the hospital has intentionally installed a Facebook tracking tool on the web pages of TorranceMemorial.org, enabling Torrance Medical Center to send to Facebook the exact contents of a patient’s website interactions without their knowledge, authorization, or consent. According to the case, the Meta Pixel, an invisible snippet of code, acts as a “listening device” to gather consumer data that Facebook can then use to fuel its targeted advertising capabilities.

The complaint explains that as patients navigate TorranceMemorial.org to schedule appointments, search for physicians, pay bills, request medical records, learn about treatment options or join support groups, the Meta pixel tracks and transmits a “detailed log” of the website visit. Most alarming, Facebook’s software collects data points that reveal a website visitor’s identity, such as their IP address or internet cookies, which are small text files placed on a user’s browser that help advertisers identify internet users and track their activities across third-party websites.

Another way the Meta pixel can identify a TorranceMemorial.org user is through their Facebook ID, a number string that can be used to “quickly and easily locate, access, and view a user’s corresponding Facebook profile,” the suit says. 

The case alleges that as the plaintiff, a Torrance Memorial patient from California, searched the hospital’s website for information pertaining to a concussion she had suffered, Facebook “instantaneously” knew the plaintiff’s medical condition and what kind of treatment she was interested in receiving.

“Facebook then took this information and added it to all of the other information it keeps about consumers, matching [the plaintiff]’s interest in medical treatment with her Facebook profile, name, address, interests, and other websites she had visited,” the filing reads. “This information then became available for Facebook’s advertisers to use when Facebook sold them targeted advertising services.”

Per the filing, the social media giant compensates Torrance Memorial and millions of other businesses that have installed the Meta pixel on their websites by providing analytics about ads they’ve placed on Facebook and Instagram, and tools to “target people who have visited their website.”

The complaint charges that Torrance Memorial’s unauthorized data disclosures are a systemic violation of the medical privacy rights of patients and website visitors and a breach of its own privacy policy, which promises that the facility “will not use or disclose your Health Information for marketing purposes without your written authorization.”

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone in California who is, or was, a patient or prospective patient of Torrance Memorial Medical Center or any of its affiliates and who exchanged communications at any of its affiliated websites, including TorranceMemorial.org, since January 9, 2018.

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