United States · Privacy · 14 Jul 2023

Online therapy firm BetterHelp pays $7.8m for sharing health data with advertisers

$7.8 million for consumer refunds and a ban on sharing health data for advertising

Company: BetterHelp
Regulator or court: Federal Trade Commission
Law: FTC Act, Section 5
Status: Final order (settlement)

What happened

BetterHelp promised users their health information would be kept private, but the FTC said it passed email addresses, IP addresses and answers to health questionnaires to Facebook, Snapchat and other platforms for advertising. The final order bans it from sharing health data for ads, requires consent before other sharing, and requires a privacy programme and data deletion.

Sources

FTC press release (July 2023)IAPP report

Summary in our own words. General information, not legal advice.

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