Lawsuit claiming Facebook had access to Jefferson’s private patient portal is dismissed

A federal judge dismissed a proposed class-action lawsuit filed by Jefferson Health patients who alleged that the health system allowed Facebook’s Meta Pixel tracking technology to access their private patient information. The lawsuit, originally filed in 2022, claimed patients began seeing Facebook ads related to medical conditions discussed within Jefferson’s patient portal. Jefferson Health denied using Meta Pixel on its patient portals, stating it was only used on public-facing websites without private medical information.

The plaintiffs’ attorneys requested to replace the original named plaintiffs, Robert Stewart and Nancy Murphy, with a third patient, Cathryn Thorpe, citing issues with the original plaintiffs’ cases. However, Judge Cynthia M. Rufe rejected this request and dismissed the lawsuit, stating the plaintiffs had ample time to address any defects and failed to meet deadlines for class certification and discovery requests.

Jefferson’s attorneys argued the request to replace plaintiffs signaled a lack of a valid controversy, and the judge agreed, finding it inconsistent for the plaintiffs to be unsuitable as named representatives yet remain part of the class. Neither Jefferson Health nor the plaintiffs’ attorneys responded to requests for comment.

(Source：The Philadelphia Inquirer)