Why Your Doctor Shares Your Data with Data Brokers

Episode 26 of The Privacy Podcast digs into a hidden data flow: how hospitals and health systems sell patient data to data brokers and advertisers. Lucas and Luna walk through the legal loophole — HIPAA's de-identification standard — and how a 2024 Wall Street Journal investigation found that 94 percent of US hospitals share data with third parties including Facebook and Google. They examine the real-world case of MultiCare Health System's 2025 settlement after a patient sued over a Facebook pixel on the patient portal. The episode also covers what you can do to opt out, why your consent form probably allows this, and whether the proposed Health Data Use and Privacy Act of 2025 would close the loophole. A concrete, unsettling look at medical privacy in the age of ad tech. #HIPAA #DataBrokers #MedicalPrivacy #PatientData #HealthData #FacebookPixel #MultiCare #OptOut #WSJInvestigation #AdTech #PrivacyLoophole #DeIdentification #HealthDataUseAndPrivacyAct #Technology #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast #ThePrivacyPodcast #DigitalPrivacy Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo