
On July 20, 2023, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) and the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) sent warning letters to approximately 130 hospital systems and telehealth providers. The letters were intended to warn those entities of the privacy and security risks of online tracking technologies integrated into their websites and mobile applications. The agencies noted that the entities may be impermissibly disclosing consumers’ sensitive personal health information to third parties such as Meta/Facebook pixel and Google Analytics through the use of such online tracking technologies in potential violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 and its implementing regulations, as amended (collectively, “HIPAA”), the FTC Act, and/or the FTC Health Breach Notification Rule (“HBNR”).