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June 02, 2023

Kaiser Served in Class Action Suit for Allowing “Wiretapping” of Personal Patient Information by Tech Companies and Advertisers

In Doe v. Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. et al., filed May 5, 2023, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, a pseudonymous named plaintiff claims Kaiser installed on its website and patient portal code that gave companies such as Google, Bing, Twitter, Adobe and Quantum Metric — which the suit calls "third-party wiretappers" — access to his personal and private health information without consent.  The plaintiff contends that this action violated HIPAA, the Electronic Privacy Communications Act, and Kaiser’s express promise of site confidentiality.

Beckers Health IT adds:

Kaiser joins other companies and health systems being sued over allegedly sharing patient information with tech companies through the use of consumer-tracking technology. The complaint seeks damages in addition to injunctive and declaratory relief.

A Kaiser spokesperson emphasized the company’s commitment to protecting members’ and patients’ confidentiality and pledged that the company would vigorously defend the case.

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