Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, March 13 (Xinhua) telemedicine startup Cerebral revealed this week that it disclosed private health information, including mental health data, about more than 3.1 million patients in the United States to advertisers and social media companies such as Meta, Google and TikTok.

Cerebral disclosed the mistake in a filing with the US federal government. According to the company, it shares personal and health information about patients who use its App search for treatment and other mental health services.

The company collects and shares name, phone number, email address, date of birth, IP address, Cerebral customer ID number and other demographic information. If users have also completed the Cerebral online mental health self-assessment, the exposed information may also include the services they choose, assessment responses and other relevant health data.

The company's document further states:

If, in addition to creating a Cerebral account and completing the online mental health self-assessment of Cerebral, the patient has purchased a subscription plan from Cerebral, the disclosed information may also include the type of subscription plan, appointment date and other reservation information, treatment and other clinical information, health insurance / pharmacy benefit information (such as plan name and group / member number), and insurance co-payments.

Cerebral said it did not disclose the patient's social security number, bank information or credit card number. After learning about the problem, the company immediately "disabled, reconfigured and / or removed" the tracker on its platform to cope with more risks in the future. The company will also stop sharing any data with subcontractors who cannot meet the requirements of the Health Insurance Circulation and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

This is not the first time a medical company has had the problem of leaking patient data. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) fined healthcare company GoodRx $1.5 million (CTOnews.com Note: currently about 10.41 million yuan) for sharing patient information with Meta and Google. Recently, FTC ordered BetterHelp to pay $7.8 million (currently about 54.132 million yuan) to users to settle allegations of sharing sensitive data for advertising purposes, which the company had promised to keep secret.

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