Telehealth startup, Cerebral, which specializes in mental health has recently revealed that it has exposed its patients’ private information that includes mental health assessments.
This data of more than 3.1 million patients in the US has apparently been shared with advertisers and social media giants like Facebook, Google, and TikTok.
In a notice published on the company’s website, it addressed the case, admitting to having exposed patient data from as far back as October 2019 by the tracking technologies it had been utilizing.
The telehealth startup came to light in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, after the online-only virtual health services came into culture due to lockdown, disclosing the security lapse in its system at the time.
In a filing with the federal government, pertaining to the security lapse, the company revealed that it has shared personal and health-related information of patients who were attempting to seek therapy or other mental health care service via their app.
The collected and distributed data includes information like names, phone numbers, email addresses, dates of birth, IP addresses, and other demographic data. In addition to data obtained from Cerebral’s online mental health self-assessment, which may also have included the services that the patient chose, assessment responses, and other related health information was also there.
Reportedly, Cerebral was using trackers and other data-collecti
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