Big Tech and advertisers' hunger for personal data belonging to users of online services and platforms unsurprisingly, yet worryingly, extends, and quite invasively, to the healthcare industry.
A new report specifically explores the so-called telehealth, or telemedicine companies which provide healthcare as middlemen on the internet, and their relationship with tech giants whose business models depend on data harvesting and advertising.
The findings about the high price patients pay in terms of privacy are contained in an investigation undertaken by STAT and shared with Reclaim The Net which looked into 50 such companies in October and November by signing up with made up identities and fake social media accounts. They used the Chrome browser and its DevTools to look at network traffic.
What they discovered is that the "convenience" of video appointments and access to online treatment and prescriptions exposes patients to the loss of some of the most sensitive personal information there is, including mental health and addiction issues, to Big Tech and advertisers.
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