In all of the National Treasure movies, the FBI goes after the guys trying to steal our nation’s secrets. In real life, our health data secrets have a new enforcer in town — the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). This may help with our trust issues, because — as Rock Health just explained — we are all reasonably nervous about sharing our health data with anyone other than our own doctors. The FTC is definitely busting down health information doors lately, with the GoodRx fine of $1.5M for illegally sharing patient data with advertisers, and a stern warning to Amazon to keep personal health information private after it acquired primary care practice chain One Medical. The agency’s latest announcement, though, is the biggest deal yet — the FTC convinced Teladoc-owned BetterHelp, an online therapy service, to pay $7.8M (which needs to be approved by a federal judge) to settle allegations that it shared consumers’ sensitive mental health information with advertisers (like Facebook, Snapchat, and Pinterest). BetterHelp did not admit wrongdoing and, indeed, denied sharing private information with advertisers in this statement. Nevertheless, the FTC announced that the settlement money (if it is approved) will go into a fund that will grant BetterHelp users a partial refund. The FTC seems to identify with our wolf-like hero in the National Treasure movies who says: “If there’s something wrong, those who have the ability to take action have the responsibility to take action.”
March 3, 2023 | 2 min read
March 3, 2023
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