{"id":5489,"date":"2023-10-21T09:53:24","date_gmt":"2023-10-21T16:53:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/?p=5489"},"modified":"2023-10-21T09:53:24","modified_gmt":"2023-10-21T16:53:24","slug":"google-microsoft-facebook-among-tech-giants-illegally-harvesting-private-health-information","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/2023\/10\/21\/google-microsoft-facebook-among-tech-giants-illegally-harvesting-private-health-information\/","title":{"rendered":"Google, Microsoft, Facebook Among Tech Giants Illegally Harvesting Private Health Information"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A good reason to utilize uMatrix and uBlock Origin<\/a> so you can block web elements and advertising, as well as using your own Pi-Hole\/Unbound DNS servers<\/a> where you can block a lot of the tracking, telemetry and advertising domains. But keep in mind that these are the tech companies, many invested in by the CIA’s venture capitalist arm, that will be used along with your digital ID, vaccine passport, CBDC… to determine your social credit score in the incoming Pano<\/a>p<\/a>ticon<\/a> of digital slavery. And they’re already big participants in censorship and determining what is considered “truth”, all promulgated by people consistently caught in blatant lies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/freedomfirstnetwork.com\/2023\/10\/google-microsoft-facebook-among-tech-giants-illegally-harvesting-private-health-information<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

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Google, Microsoft, Facebook, TikTok and the majority of medical and healthcare websites illegally harvest and sell private health information despite a federal crackdown on the practice, according to a new cybersecurity report by Feroot Security.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

by Mike Capuzzo, The Defender<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google, Microsoft, Facebook, TikTok and the majority of medical and healthcare websites illegally harvest and sell private health information despite a federal crackdown on the practice, according to a new cybersecurity report<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report, by Toronto-based cybersecurity firm Feroot Security<\/a>, analyzed hundreds of healthcare websites and found that more than 86% are collecting private data and transferring it to advertisers, marketers and Big Tech<\/a> social media companies without user consent and in violation of privacy laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As patients or consumers browse their favorite or trusted medical websites or sign in to hospital portals to access their private health records, invisible bits of HTML code \u2014 called \u201ctracking pixels\u201d \u2014 embedded on the websites harvest private information, such as whether patients have cancer, erectile dysfunction or are behind on their hospital bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The information is repackaged and sold for a variety of uses, including to companies that target individual users with internet ads, according to the report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The risk of having personal data scraped is particularly high on log-in and registration pages where internet users supply troves of information, unaware it is being hijacked and sold. More than 73% of log-in and registration pages have invisible trackers that pirate personal health information, the study found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Approximately 15% of the tracking pixels analyzed by Feroot record users\u2019 keystrokes<\/a>, harvesting social security numbers, usernames and passwords, credit card and banking information, and an infinite variety of personal health data, including medical diagnosis and treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study showed that \u201cGoogle<\/a> is the absolute dominant collector\u201d of data. Ninety-two percent of the websites loaded on the Google search engine contained data-harvesting technology across wide sectors of the U.S. economy including healthcare and telehealth, banking and financial services, airlines, e-commerce, and the federal and state governments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The number two offender was Microsoft with 50.4% of websites on its platform hiding tracking tools, with Facebook next at 50.2% percent and TikTok at 7.41% percent and growing fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google, as the driver of its parent Alphabet, the world\u2019s fourth largest company<\/a>, is often called \u201cthe most powerful company in the world<\/a>.\u201d It counts on advertising, a lifeblood of the global digital economy, for 80% of its revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Microsoft and Facebook \u201cround up the Top 3\u201d of companies that systematically breach data, the report said. Representatives of Google, Microsoft, and Facebook denied their companies<\/a> used tracking pixels to harvest personal data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Website owners are responsible for controlling data collection, a Google spokesperson said. Google policy<\/a> prohibits Google Analytics and advertising customers, including for example hospital or telehealth websites, from collecting health data in violation of the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA<\/a>). It\u2019s up to the websites to determine \u201cwhether they are HIPAA-regulated entities and what their obligations are under HIPAA,\u201d Google policy says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Personal health data collected by a tracker or third party without a user\u2019s consent is a violation of HIPAA<\/a>, said Feroot CEO Ivan Tsarynny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Big Tech companies \u201cdo have policies that talk about protecting health info,\u201d Tsarynny said<\/a>. But \u201cthe real-world application of these policies is a different story.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feroot\u2019s study comes as \u201cconcern grows regarding data mining companies using pixels\/trackers that load into browsers from websites to collect privacy and sensitive user data,\u201d the report stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCompliance regulators and government authorities are increasingly stepping in with bans, restrictions, and executive orders to curb them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eighteen major hospital systems<\/a> were sued this year for sharing patients\u2019 sensitive health data with Google, Facebook<\/a> and other tech giants in violation of privacy laws, according to Becker\u2019s Hospital Review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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They include prominent academic medical centers such as the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, the University of Chicago Medical Center, the University of Iowa Medical Center, Chicago-based Northwestern Memorial Hospital and the University of California San Francisco Medical Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prompted by growing concerns over data theft and the article, \u201c\u2018Out of Control\u2019<\/a>: Dozens of Telehealth Startups Sent Sensitive Health Information to Big Tech Companies,\u201d Feroot launched an investigation \u201cto ascertain the exact magnitude and pervasiveness of social media pixels\/trackers collecting and transferring personal, sensitive, and private data using pixels or trackers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The security platform Feroot sells to companies \u201cmade it possible to get detailed facts regarding active client-side e-skimming,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feroot collected data on pixels\/trackers during an eight-week period in January and February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company said it examined more than 3,675 organizations with unique websites in seven economic sectors. It studied 108,836 unique web pages, including especially vulnerable login, registration and credit card processing pages, 227 trackers and 7 million data transfers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key findings from \u2018Beware of Pixels & Trackers\u2019:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n