Study of Healthcare Websites Shows Widespread and Risky Use of Tracking and Analytics Tools
A new study found that most healthcare websites deploy third-party marketing and analytics tools that could expose sensitive patient information to outside companies. The findings point to a systemic gap between what healthcare sites collect and what patients reasonably expect about who sees their data.
Why this matters: When you visit a hospital or clinic website, you probably assume that what you look up stays between you and your provider. It often does not. Marketing trackers do not know you are searching for a cancer specialist or a mental health clinic. They just collect and send the data. Healthcare organizations are bound by HIPAA, but the tools they embed on their websites frequently are not. That mismatch puts real people at risk of having medical interests exposed to advertisers, data brokers, or anyone who buys the feed downstream. The organization running the website is responsible for what it puts on the page.
Who should care: Healthcare professionals · Privacy officers · Compliance · Cybersecurity
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