NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A class action lawsuit has been filed against HCA Healthcare that claims patients had to accept cookies and trackers on their devices in order to schedule urgent care appointments online.
Three patients, who used pseudonyms instead of their real names, claim that cookies and tracking tools were used on CareNow’s website, which allegedly shared their information with Google.
The suit claims that patients had to have first-party cookies enabled to access its Appointment Making Services. If they didn’t, the scheduling page would not properly load and they would continue to be redirected to a CAPTCHA verification page.
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“This is very synonymous with a PHI records, medical data records. You’re talking about addresses, phone numbers, you know, next of kin, date of births,” said Ricoh Danielson, a Cyber Security Expert and National Security Advisor. “From a technology perspective, consumers and patients might get some weird ads or redirected ads or some type of different user experience. From a breach perspective, now their data is out there. It’s for sale.”…