Mental health startup Cerebral shares private patient data with Google, Meta and TikTok

Cerebral has shared patients’ personal data with giants such as Google, Meta, and TikTok.

Cerebral, a telemedicine startup that rose to prominence in the early days of the pandemic, said it had shared the personal data of more than 3.1 million U.S. patients with social media companies and advertisers, including Google, Meta and TikTok. According to TechCrunch, information recently released on Cerebral’s website shows that the company has been using “pixels,”tracking scripts that companies like Meta offer to third-party developers for marketing purposes, to collect user data since its inception in October 2019.

Cerebral General Patient Personal Data

Following a recent review of its software, Cerebral “determined that it has disclosed certain information that may be classified as protected health data under the [Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act].”Among the data shared with Cerebral are names, phone numbers, dates of birth and insurance information. In some cases, the company may even disclose information collected through mental health self-assessments that patients complete to schedule doctor visits and access other services. According to Cerebral, she did not release social security numbers, banking information, or credit card numbers.

with giants like Google, Meta and TikTok

Upon making this discovery, Cerebral explains that it “disabled, reconfigured and/or removed”the tracking pixels that were the source of this data disclosure. “In addition, we have improved our data security practices and technology validation systems to minimize the risks of sharing such information in the future.” The US Department of Health and Human Services is investigating Cerebral.

This new data “leak”comes after the Federal Trade Commission fined the GoodRx app $1.5 million for sharing patient data with Meta and Google. A few days ago, the agency announced a $7.8 million deal with online company BetterHelp and said it was seeking to permanently ban the company from sharing health data for targeted advertising.