Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente is facing a proposed class-action lawsuit over accusations it let tech companies "intercept" private patient data for advertising purposes.
A California patient, known in the lawsuit as John Doe, filed the complaint May 5 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. It claims the health system installed code on its website and patient portal that gave companies including Google, Bing, Twitter, Adobe and Quantum Metric — which the suit calls "third-party wiretappers" — access to his personal and private health information.
Kaiser joins a growing list of health systems being sued over their alleged sharing of patient information with tech companies via consumer-tracking technology. The complaint asks for damages and injunctive and declaratory relief.
"Kaiser Permanente is committed to protecting the confidentiality of our members' and patients' information and takes extensive measures to comply with all applicable requirements," a health system spokesperson emailed Becker's. "We have not been served with the lawsuit and have no further comment at this time. We will respond to the allegations in a court filing and defend this case vigorously."