"HHS, FTC Warn Hospitals and Telehealth Providers About Third-Party Tracking Tech"
The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sent a letter to 130 hospitals and telehealth providers highlighting the security and privacy risks posed by third-party tracking technologies. As previously reported, numerous healthcare data breaches have resulted from the presence of third-party tracking technology on hospital websites, which inadvertently transmitted sensitive data back to technology companies like Facebook and Google. A study published in Health Affairs found third-party tracking technology on 98.6 percent of US nonfederal acute care hospital websites. OCR has previously issued a bulletin regarding the appropriate use of tracking technology under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and the FTC has settled high-profile cases with GoodRx and BetterHelp regarding their use of this technology. This article continues to discuss HHS and the FTC bringing further attention to the privacy and security risks of online tracking technologies.