The online counseling service BetterHelp has agreed to return $7.8 million to customers to settle with the Federal Trade Commission for sharing with companies including Facebook and Snapchat health data it had promised to keep private.
FILE - The Federal Trade Commission building in Washington is pictured on Jan. 28, 2015. The online counseling service BetterHelp has agreed to return $7.8 million to customers to settle with the FTC for sharing health data it had promised to keep private including information about mental health challenges with companies including Facebook and Snapchat. The proposed FTC order announced Thursday, March 2, 2023, also limits how the California-based company may share consumer data in the future.
Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, however, said BetterHelp betrayed consumers’ most personal health information for profit. The FTC has made it clear of its intent to crack down on the trafficking in sensitive health data by businesses not strictly classified as health care providers and thus not covered by HIPAA, the federal privacy rules that govern the health care industry.
The company nevertheless revealed data including email and IP addresses and questionnaire information to Facebook, Snapchat, Criteo, and Pinterest for advertising purposes, the FTC said in its complaint. It also accused BetterHelp of misleading customers and the public in 2020 by falsely denying news reports that it had revealed customers' personal data to third parties.
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