{"id":279803,"date":"2026-06-23T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/23\/social-media-privacy-health-firms-tracked-patients-searches-without-consent-watchdog-finds\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T15:15:30","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T19:15:30","slug":"social-media-privacy-health-firms-tracked-patients-searches-without-consent-watchdog-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/23\/social-media-privacy-health-firms-tracked-patients-searches-without-consent-watchdog-finds\/","title":{"rendered":"Social media privacy: Health firms tracked patients\u2019 searches without consent, watchdog finds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/technology\/health-firms-tracked-patients-searches-without-consent-watchdog-finds-20260622-p60927.html\">Social media privacy: Health firms tracked patients\u2019 searches without consent, watchdog finds<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/technology\/health-firms-tracked-patients-searches-without-consent-watchdog-finds-20260622-p60927.html\">https:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/technology\/health-firms-tracked-patients-searches-without-consent-watchdog-finds-20260622-p60927.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-06-23 15:00:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"www.smh.com.au\">www.smh.com.au<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"sc-f9e3ccff-2 gaKrMl\">Save<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-d1b14060-4 JmUoF\">You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n<p>Remove items from your saved list to add more.<\/p>\n<p>AAA<\/p>\n<p>People researching topics such as egg freezing, prostate conditions and contraception on two health websites were tracked through invisible code and had their searches fed to social media giants in conduct Australia\u2019s privacy watchdog has now ruled unlawful.<\/p>\n<p>Privacy Commissioner Carly Kind found that fertility provider Monash IVF and telehealth company Medmate both interfered with the privacy of website visitors by using third-party tracking pixels without consent, then used what they gathered to chase those people with advertising. Both companies have been ordered to stop and delete the data they collected.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Harm from the two health sites\u2019 unlawful tracking went beyond the discomfort of being followed by ads, said Privacy Commissioner Carly Kind.\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/static.ffx.io\/images\/$zoom_0.126%2C$multiply_0.7725%2C$ratio_1.5%2C$width_756%2C$x_0%2C$y_0\/t_crop_custom\/q_86%2Cf_auto\/edf7f98db6bb4f87064284987f004eb11905f9bd\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.ffx.io\/images\/$zoom_0.126%2C$multiply_0.7725%2C$ratio_1.5%2C$width_756%2C$x_0%2C$y_0\/t_crop_custom\/q_86%2Cf_auto\/edf7f98db6bb4f87064284987f004eb11905f9bd, https:\/\/static.ffx.io\/images\/$zoom_0.126%2C$multiply_1.545%2C$ratio_1.5%2C$width_756%2C$x_0%2C$y_0\/t_crop_custom\/q_62%2Cf_auto\/edf7f98db6bb4f87064284987f004eb11905f9bd 2x\" class=\"sc-d34e428-1 ldCIuB\"\/><span>Harm from the two health sites\u2019 unlawful tracking went beyond the discomfort of being followed by ads, said Privacy Commissioner Carly Kind.<\/span><span class=\"sc-4820f69c-3 jfhtQZ\">Edwina Pickle<\/span><\/p>\n<p>A pixel is an invisible piece of code embedded in a website that records what a visitor does, from the pages they read to the searches they run, and sends that information to companies such as Meta and TikTok.<\/p>\n<p>The regulator\u2019s findings, to be published on Wednesday, are its first ruling on the technology. They establish that a website using tracking pixels to collect health information and then target those visitors with advertising is collecting sensitive personal information that requires consent under the Privacy Act.<\/p>\n<p>Kind said the harm went beyond the discomfort of being followed by ads.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe potential real-world harm is that people don\u2019t feel comfortable searching out information and health services online \u2026 because they\u2019re worried that their health data is going to be used and passed on to big tech social media companies,\u201d she said in an interview.<\/p>\n<p>She pointed to \u201cthe chilling effect of knowing that one is under surveillance online, and then self-censoring or stopping yourself from looking for information that really could assist you or your family\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Medmate ran Meta and TikTok pixels from April 2021, which transmitted full web addresses that disclosed the condition or medication a person was seeking.\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/static.ffx.io\/images\/$zoom_0.519%2C$multiply_0.7725%2C$ratio_1.5%2C$width_756%2C$x_60%2C$y_0\/t_crop_custom\/q_86%2Cf_auto\/a5aadfdac979cd7cd7d0d6421e839211ff9d5f44\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.ffx.io\/images\/$zoom_0.519%2C$multiply_0.7725%2C$ratio_1.5%2C$width_756%2C$x_60%2C$y_0\/t_crop_custom\/q_86%2Cf_auto\/a5aadfdac979cd7cd7d0d6421e839211ff9d5f44, https:\/\/static.ffx.io\/images\/$zoom_0.519%2C$multiply_1.545%2C$ratio_1.5%2C$width_756%2C$x_60%2C$y_0\/t_crop_custom\/q_62%2Cf_auto\/a5aadfdac979cd7cd7d0d6421e839211ff9d5f44 2x\" class=\"sc-d34e428-1 ldCIuB\"\/><span>Medmate ran Meta and TikTok pixels&#8230;<\/span><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/technology\/health-firms-tracked-patients-searches-without-consent-watchdog-finds-20260622-p60927.html\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Social media privacy: Health firms tracked patients\u2019 searches without consent, watchdog finds https:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/technology\/health-firms-tracked-patients-searches-without-consent-watchdog-finds-20260622-p60927.html Publish Date:&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":279805,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static.ffx.io\/images\/$zoom_0.2537%2C$multiply_0.7554%2C$ratio_1.777778%2C$width_1059%2C$x_67%2C$y_88\/t_crop_custom\/q_86%2Cf_auto\/edf7f98db6bb4f87064284987f004eb11905f9bd","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-279803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-privacy","tag-tracking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279803"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279803"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":279807,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279803\/revisions\/279807"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}