Popular health websites in UK are sharing sensitive user data with dozens of companies including Google and Facebook along with data-brokers and adtech firms
Some of the UK's most popular health websites are sharing people's sensitive data — including medical symptoms, diagnoses …
Google, Facebook, data brokers and adtech firms are receiving symptom and diagnosis-level data from some of the UK's most popular health websites, giving them sensitive audience signals no consent banner explicitly framed.
Second-order effects
The named platforms face pressure to police or cut these tracker integrations, while health publishers must choose between adtech revenue and GDPR exposure as regulators scrutinize who else touches the data.
Third-order effects
With NHS bulk-sharing plans and the Biobank pledge-breach stacking on top of website leaks, UK health data is heading toward stricter consent regimes and opt-out battles as the default trust model for secondary use collapses.
The trend: Sensitive UK health data keeps migrating from patient-controlled contexts into commercial pipelines — websites, national datasets, research biobanks — faster than pledges and oversight can contain it.
An FT investigation has shown that people's most sensitive health data, including their medical symptoms, diagnoses and period and fertility information, are being traded with dozens of companies around the world, including Google, Amazon and Facebook https://www.ft.com/... https…
How top health websites are sharing sensitive data with advertisers. Bravo to the FT for this extraordinary reporting. https://giftarticle.ft.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Developers aren't taught about eprivacy law. They should be. Clients don't stipulate privacy compliance in deliverables. They should do. https://twitter.com/...
Ugh. Ever checked out your symptoms? Fertility? Asked questions about abortion? The toxic data swamp now has them. And knows exactly you are. The ramifications of this are huge. Important new data investigation from @ft https://www.ft.com/...
No one should have the right to ‘own’ or sell your data, but here we are, you've given it away for free. Perhaps we should copy the music industry, so every time someone accesses your data you're paid a royalty. https://twitter.com/...
When people search “drug overdose” on WebMD, the site secretly shares the data w/Facebook, which can use it to track the searcher around the internet. One of many big revelations in this @FT investigation into how ad tech works on medical websites: https://www.ft.com/...
Being online is like having someone behind you all the time, writing down every single thing you say and do to sell that to whoever is willing to pay. Would the unvirtual equivalent be deemed acceptable? https://twitter.com/...