FTC sues Hims & Hers for allegedly sharing patients’ medical data with advertisers Meta and Snap

The Federal Trade Commission is suing healthcare giant Hims & Hers for allegedly sharing its customers’ medical and healthcare information with advertisers and tech giants, like Meta and Snap, as well as for misleading consumers about its privacy practices.

The lawsuit is the federal consumer watchdog’s latest crackdown in recent years on healthcare companies that share sensitive information with outside companies without their customers’ knowledge. Hims & Hers, now a publicly traded company , provides prescription medication for sexual wellness, mental health conditions, weight loss, and other issues, and as such handles a large amount of sensitive patient data.

Companies typically try to learn more about their customers by installing code on their websites in order to share users’ information with advertisers, like Meta and Snap, which then use the data to provide information about who is visiting their websites and when.