When companies share your personal information without your permission

Health and wellness websites and apps collect a lot of personal and sensitive health information about their users. And they might make promises about how they’ll use and protect that data. If companies don’t honor those promises, it can lead to a serious breach of trust — and a lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission.

The FTC recently took action against Cerebral, Inc., an online mental health provider, and Monument, Inc., an online alcohol treatment service. The FTC alleges that they promised to keep customers’ personal information private, but instead shared it with third parties, for advertising purposes.

According to the FTC, Cerebral disclosed data that included sensitive health information about customers’ medical histories and prescriptions, and Monument disclosed information that revealed that users were getting help with alcohol addiction. Both companies are banned from sharing users’ health information for advertising.

Cerebral also will pay more than $5 million to be used for refunds for failing to honor its so-called easy cancellation policy.

Concerned about how websites and apps use your personal information? Here are some things to consider:

• Compare privacy protections. Compare the privacy protections of different websites and apps that offer similar services. Look for a privacy notice that explains in simple terms what health information they collect from you, and how they use and share your information. If the website or app shares your information, does it say why? Does it limit what others can do with it?
• Review website notices. If you visit a website and see a notice about how the website uses cookies, review the options. They may let you choose to allow only cookies that are necessary or to allow cookies for advertising and other purposes. Choose the option that best suits you.
• Customize the information you share. Your browser’s privacy settings let you customize the information websites collect about you. For example, you can choose to block your location or personalized advertising or block websites from seeing your browsing history. For details, see How Websites and Apps Collect and Use Your Information.

Finally, some states have laws that give you the right to tell a company to delete your data — see if your state is one of them.

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