Atrium Health installed trackers in its mobile app and website to collect patients’ data without their consent and then shared that personal information with Google and Facebook for targeted advertising, according to a proposed class action in North Carolina Business Court.
Darielle Hill said Atrium Health directed her to use its website and app while it was providing her healthcare services starting in 2019, and that shortly afterward she began receiving “spam and ads on Facebook and other social media including Google platforms related to her conditions.” Hill’s complaint, which was assigned to the Tar Heel State Business Court on Monday, states she and her proposed class of fellow web users never consented to having their personal information shared and had a reasonable expectation that the healthcare firm would keep the data private.
“Atrium knows that this sensitive information has tremendous value and that plaintiff and class members would not consent to its use in marketing or its dissemination to Meta and Google if they were provided a choice or would demand significant compensation,” the suit says.
