Lawsuit Investigation: Weight Watchers Illegally Sharing Your Data?

Attorneys working with ClassAction.org are investigating whether a class action lawsuit can be filed alleging that Weight Watchers illegally collects and shares online users’ personal health information with third parties.

Specifically, the attorneys have reason to believe that tracking tools on WeightWatchers.com may be quietly gathering data from consumers’ interactions with the site—including information supplied in online quizzes—and then sending it to Facebook, Google, TikTok and others.

This data may include height and weight, diabetes diagnoses, and prior use of weight loss medication, among other details. In general, data collected through online tracking tools can be used—by both the website and the companies that receive the data—to better target advertisements.

Tracking Pixels: Could Your Data Be Getting Shared? 

Many website operators gather data about people who use their services by using invisible tracking tools, including the Meta (formerly known as Facebook) pixel, the Google tracking pixel and the TikTok pixel.

Tracking pixels, which can be embedded on any webpage, can be programmed to record every action a visitor takes, such as the buttons they click, the searches they perform and the content they view.

Since these tracking tools operate behind the scenes, website visitors may not be aware that their actions are being tracked or that their information is being shared with third parties. For this reason, concerns have been raised about the use of tracking tools on websites, especially in situations where users enter their medical information online.

In the case of WeightWatchers.com, attorneys suspect tracking tools may be quietly gathering and disseminating information on consumers as they use the site to take online quizzes, seek weight loss medication, look for information via the search bar or talk via the chat feature. Quizzes found on WeightWatchers.com ask about particularly sensitive information, including age, dietary restrictions, whether the individual used a weight loss medication in the past three months, how much weight the person wants to lose, why prior weight loss efforts were unsuccessful and whether the individual is living with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes.

Though voluntarily dismissed, a proposed class action lawsuit filed in 2022 alleged WeightWatchers.com collected data on the videos users watched and secretly shared this information with Facebook via its tracking pixel in violation of federal law.

How Could a Data Collection Lawsuit Against Weight Watchers Help?

If filed and successful, a class action lawsuit against Weight Watchers could provide consumers with compensation for potential privacy violations. It could also force the weight loss company to make changes to any illegal data sharing practices. 

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