"Community Health Network Notifies 1.5M of Data Breach Stemming From Tracking Tech"
Community Health Network, an Indiana-based integrated healthcare system, notified 1.5 million people about a data breach caused by the use of third-party tracking technologies from companies such as Facebook and Google. Facebook's parent company, Meta, is under investigation for using tracking pixels on hospital websites and inside password-protected patent portals. Tracking pixels are commonly used to track visitor activity and trends, as well as for targeted marketing. The tracking technology was used by Community Health Network to better understand how patients and other users interacted with its website, according to the health system. When Community Health Network became aware of concerns about the use of third-party tracking technologies by healthcare organizations, it launched an internal investigation that included hiring a third-party forensic firm to perform a thorough technical evaluation of the technologies used on its websites and applications. Community Health Network began disabling and removing certain technologies from its websites and applications after discovering that the third-party technology had been installed on its patient portal and some appointment scheduling sites. The investigation revealed on September 22, 2022, that the configuration of certain technologies enabled more information to be collected and transmitted to each corresponding third-party tracking technology vendor than Community Health Network had intended. The type of information that could be transmitted varied depending on the user's activity and the configuration of each device. IP addresses, locations, scheduled appointment times, MyChart communications, and other information could have been included. This article continues to discuss the Community Health Network data breach, as well as the breach faced by Kaiser Permanente and the ransomware attack on the provider of prosthetics, orthotics, and accessibility solutions Wright & Filippis.