Hospitals pledge to protect patient privacy. Almost all their websites leak visitor data like a sieve

STAT April 3, 2023
Casey Ross

Every hospital in America promises to protect the privacy of its patients and the details of their medical care. And almost every one of them uses sophisticated data tools to track and share the personal information of visitors as soon as they start clicking on their websites.

A new study found that 99% of U.S. hospitals employed online data trackers in 2021 that transmitted visitors’ information to a broad network of outside parties, including major technology companies, data brokers, and private equity firms.

The data captured included visits to pages on specific conditions such as depression, breast cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease. The ubiquitous use of the tracking tools may clash with the privacy expectations — if not the legal protections...

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