Insights

New York – January 16, 2024: Linda Malek, Jason Johnson and Blaze Waleski are joining Crowell & Moring’s Health Care and Privacy & Cybersecurity groups and will be based in the New York office.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently entered into a settlement with Monument, Inc., an alcohol addiction treatment service, for allegedly disclosing users’ personal health data to third-party advertising platforms without consumer consent and violating their own website claims to consumers with respect to the disclosure of such data. The action follows other settlements by the FTC focused on tracking technologies collecting sensitive health information through web pages and web portals. “This action continues the FTC’s work to ensure strict limits on how firms handle sensitive health data, rather than putting the onus on consumers to protect themselves,” said Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Following on the heels of actions against GoodRx, BetterHelp, and Premom, the market should be getting the message that consumer health data should be handled with extreme caution.”