Hims & Hers Third Party Data Privacy Investigation

The Lyon Firm is investigating Hims & Hers telehealth websites (Hims, Hers, Apostrophe) for potential data tracking technology, and health privacy violations.

According to a recent investigation published on The Markup website, popular telehealth websites, including Hims, Hers and Apostrophe have allegedly been using data tracking tools, and sharing users’ medical and personal information to Facebook and other big tech companies.

This private information on telehealth websites (Hims, Hers and Apostrophe) is often shared with tech companies with the use of tracking code and without user consent.

The Markup reported that 49 direct-to-consumer telehealth companies had a third-party tracking code on their site, with the potential to share data with third parties. The study follows another privacy report that revealed many healthcare systems in the U.S. using tracking code on their web portals.

In many cases, user answers to medical questionnaires regarding health conditions, medical histories, and drug use were sent to big tech firms. Dozens of the telehealth websites shared email addresses, phone numbers, and full names.

Collected information from some websites are sent to Meta, Google, TikTok, Bing, Snap, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest, possibly for the future use in targeted advertising.

In response to the investigation, a spokesman from Hims & Hers released this statement:

“Risks to privacy and security are constantly evolving and we have taken significant steps to prevent sensitive information from being collected by third party marketing pixels. When we learn of a new risk, we take action to remediate that risk. To be clear, information such as a patient’s medical record, their correspondence with their provider, or their prescribed medication is not collected by third party marketing pixels. Apostrophe was acquired by Hims & Hers last year. As part of the transition work, we removed the Meta pixel from the site at the end of October.”

If you have reason to believe your personal information has been compromised by any telehealth company, contact the Lyon Firm to discuss your personal privacy and potential legal action.