EPIC Urges 7th Circuit to Uphold Wiretap Act to Protect Private Communications Containing Sensitive Health Data
EPIC filed an amicus brief in the Seventh Circuit asking the court to treat Edward-Elmhurst Health's use of Meta Pixel on its patient portal as a violation of the federal Wiretap Act. The health system embedded tracking code that automatically sent patient data from its MyChart portal to Meta and other third parties.
Why this matters: When you log into a hospital's patient portal, you expect your information to stay medical. You do not expect it to be quietly handed to Meta. Health systems have been embedding tracking code that does exactly that, often without patients knowing. The Wiretap Act is a serious federal law with real teeth. If courts apply it here, hospitals face meaningful consequences for surveillance-grade data sharing. If they do not, patient portals become one more place where your most sensitive information is harvested and sold.
Who should care: Healthcare professionals · Privacy officers · Compliance · Cybersecurity
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