Facebook could be tracking your online Plan B or HIV test purchases

L4sBot@lemmy.worldmod to Technology@lemmy.world – 194 points – Facebook could be tracking your online Plan B or HIV test purchases
popsci.com

Twelve of the largest drug stores in the U.S. sent shoppers’ sensitive health information to Facebook or other platforms.

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I'm yet to find a single thing about leaving facebook that makes me regret it. What a terrible website

I sometimes pop in to use marketplace but even with a burner account I activate every privacy extension I can find like some sort of full body condom

How is this not a HIPAA violation?

It is. Pharmacies like CVS fall under covered entities, and must adhere to HIPAA regulations.

The article discusses this.

In these cases, a pixel on the pharmacy website is being downloaded by your IP address. I don’t think there’s anything there would constitute PHI (Protected Health Information) under HIPAA.

In isolation, this data means nothing. But these massive companies can easily link an IP address to a person. And each pixel has a different URL, which identifies what page is calling it (eg, the page that says you’ve added an HIV test to your cart).

The results of the test would be covered by HIPAA, as would any test administered by a doctor or in a hospital setting. But in a pharmacy only prescriptions are covered by HIPAA - anything non-prescription is unprotected.

So if you're privacy conscious and using something like NextDNS to block pixels and other shady tracking mechanisms at the DNS level, all's good? When I left Facebook back in 2016, I started with Pihole, but I like NextDNS because it's easier to use when not at home and I can manage profiles for family members easily in case to do find something they "need" to work. Why people willingly want to see ads is beyond me.

It’s hard to say, but basic precautions like a browser based ad blocker would filter out probably 90%+ of this tracking. Firefox and Safari even have this baked in to the browser, you just need to turn it on.

The built in “do not track” features require companies to operate in good faith and honor that. I have zero trust In that.

I’m not talking about “Do Not Track”. I’m talking about features like this:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/trackers-and-scripts-firefox-blocks-enhanced-track

It’s a Firefox setting that specifically blocks pixels and cross-site cookies. It’s turned on by default, and you can increase it to “strict” if you value privacy over comparability.

Ah, wasn't aware of that one. Thanks for the info.

HIPAA requires you to know about it to make a complaint. Also, corporations may not count as healthcare providers, so they sneak through a loophole.

None of this is correct. HIPAA obligations are not contingent on a complaint, and being incorporated absolutely is not incompatible with being a healthcare provider.

Who else except boomers are still using Facebook? Like really?

What I know is some craftsmen and small workshops only use Facebook to do their businesses. If you are interested in their work and want to contact them, you can only do that through Facebook. They don't have websites nor blogs, sometimes don't show their email to the public. I don't know why but maybe they want to be selective.

I think for some it is just easier - they don't need to get their nephew to build a janky website, or cut into their profit by having someone build a decent one.

The older blokes in particular probably aren't worried or even aware of the issues with Facebook. For them, it's just a place to share pics of their grandkids visiting and boomer memes etc.

Even with the younger crowd - when I move, which is every few years, I often find new hairdressers on Facebook; few bother with a website. They're already on there and it's a great way to show their work to a wide range of potential clients.

Almost no one is going to a website every few weeks to check out updates from their favourite artisans, but they will scroll through a social feed and often interact with the posts.

I use it to sell things, but that's literally it. Legitimately the only things it's good for at this point. And every time I go on there I'm reminded of how terrible it is. Actually nauseating.

Ah yea. There’s a marketplace but why not eBay? Swappa, offer up etc? Much better than FB?

Possibly, I don't use alternatives much (primarily because I don't sell much in general). I prefer Facebook because so many people are there and it's easier to facilitate cash payments via meetups. But there could be better ones, I'm not all that familiar with Swappa or OfferUp.

Facebook is great for local sales. Ebay, not so much.

I was trying to buy a car and tried facebook, but it kept showing me people selling cars for $1234 and from imaginary made up locations. I think they were chop shops.

I do ebay too but it's a lot less work to sell local on marketplace so I don't have to risk a bad rating because I took too long finding a box / packing / having issues with USPS not picking up packages etc. I only do porch pickup on FB so I can just step outside and get cash. It's especially great when I'm selling larger things too like PCs, servers, or UPSes which can be ~50lbs to several hundred lbs. I won't ship PCs or even spinning hard drives let alone anything larger like a server.

What got me off Facebook was their fucking algorithm. Any time I said anything slightly controversial, like suggesting Trump was being less than honest, Facebook would make sure everyone I knew who disagreed saw it. For EnGaGeMeNt!

After a few engagement blowups, I barely use Facebook anymore. And now when I check, my feed is so full of ads and sponsored posts, and has precious little content from actual friends, that it's just not worth the headache.