4 ms·

Alcohol recovery startups shared patients’ private data with advertisers

71 points by nobody9999 4y ago

BMc2020 4y ago
not unrelated: BetterHelp, Teladoc’s online therapy business, will be barred from sharing data, including about mental health, for advertising purposes, the Federal Trade Commission said Thursday in a statement...
- nobody9999 4y ago
  FTC press release[0] (2 March 2023) on the case you mention... [0]https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/03/ftc-ban-betterhelp-revealing-consumers-data-including-sensitive-mental-health-information-facebook https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/03/...
ftxbro 4y ago
something seems wrong about "alcohol recovery startups" like in a 'what stage of capitalism is this' way
- ahi 4y ago
  I get that sense from most healthcare startups. The problem with healthcare is all the grifting. Let's add another grifter!
  - kevviiinn 4y ago
    You have just defined the essence of capitalism, where everyone strives to be a middleman
    - giraffe_lady 4y ago
      that rent ain't gonna seek itself
  - mistrial9 4y ago
    you jovially shout that, but I heard a wealthy US physician describe in a well-practiced tone "now we have an en-tre-pre-neur in the loop" .. like it was a cockroach. This is not new, and that US AMA Physician had more money in his 401k than most people make in their lives.
- heavyset_go 4y ago
  Imagine being ordered by a court to be their customer if you want leniency in your sentencing.
autoexec 4y ago
The people running companies doing this kind of thing need prison sentences. Nothing short of that will stop them, and we need people to feel comfortable getting this kind of healthcare. Should we really have to caution people against calling a suicide/rape/crisis hotline, or seeking help for their addictions because it's possible for their wireless carrier to sell their call data, or because the service providers themselves can sell that data leaving a permanent record of a person's hardest struggles which will be used against them over and over for the rest of their lives, be seen by potential employers, or leaked to the world? The buying and selling of our personal details has become a multi-billion dollar a year industry and it's making some people very very wealthy at our expense, but the harm we risk by allowing it continue unrestricted is too great. Recovery programs and addiction services can be court ordered as well, so it's not like everyone will even have a choice here. > Monument, which acquired Tempest in 2022, confirmed the extensive years-long leak of patients’ information in a data breach notification filed with California’s attorney general last week, blaming their use of third-party tracking systems developed by ad giants including Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Pinterest. You can't claim to be surprised when you're using a bunch of services from companies whose entire business model is spying on people and then exploiting that data for profit. That sounds more like an admission of guilt than a deflection of blame to me. I'm sure advertisers will be shoving ads for alcohol into the faces of the victims of Monument and Tempest for the rest of their lives because of this.
- dragonwriter 4y ago
  > The people running companies doing this kind of thing need prison sentences. HIPAA and, if any federally-involved (even indirectly) treatment was involved, even more stringent [0] (as to disclosure conditions, the penalties are the same) special rules for the protection of federal substance use disorder patients, provide both civil penalties for unauthorized disclosures and criminal penalties for knowingly disclosing or obtaining information without authorization. [0] More stringent, as in, for example, its still a crime to disclose information to someone with a completely valid subpoena for it, unless you have also been issued a special disclosure-authorizing court order in addition to the subpoena.
  - 4y ago
andrewstuart 4y ago
Of course they did. It’s Silicon Valley, where the baseline expectation is that company founders don’t even know what ethics and integrity mean.
- corbulo 4y ago
  SV Cyberpunk dystopia edition will be fascinating to watch from the outside.
andrewstuart 4y ago
Ironically, on the same page of HN: Business 30 under 30-year sentences: why so many of Forbes’ young heroes face jail https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/apr/06/forbes-30-under-30-tech-finance-prison https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/apr/06/forbes-30-u...

71 points by nobody9999 4y ago

BMc2020 4y ago

not unrelated: BetterHelp, Teladoc’s online therapy business, will be barred from sharing data, including about mental health, for advertising purposes, the Federal Trade Commission said Thursday in a statement...

nobody9999 4y ago
FTC press release[0] (2 March 2023) on the case you mention... [0]https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/03/ftc-ban-betterhelp-revealing-consumers-data-including-sensitive-mental-health-information-facebook https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/03/...

ftxbro 4y ago

something seems wrong about "alcohol recovery startups" like in a 'what stage of capitalism is this' way

ahi 4y ago
I get that sense from most healthcare startups. The problem with healthcare is all the grifting. Let's add another grifter!
- kevviiinn 4y ago
  You have just defined the essence of capitalism, where everyone strives to be a middleman
  - giraffe_lady 4y ago
    that rent ain't gonna seek itself
- mistrial9 4y ago
  you jovially shout that, but I heard a wealthy US physician describe in a well-practiced tone "now we have an en-tre-pre-neur in the loop" .. like it was a cockroach. This is not new, and that US AMA Physician had more money in his 401k than most people make in their lives.
heavyset_go 4y ago
Imagine being ordered by a court to be their customer if you want leniency in your sentencing.

autoexec 4y ago

The people running companies doing this kind of thing need prison sentences. Nothing short of that will stop them, and we need people to feel comfortable getting this kind of healthcare. Should we really have to caution people against calling a suicide/rape/crisis hotline, or seeking help for their addictions because it's possible for their wireless carrier to sell their call data, or because the service providers themselves can sell that data leaving a permanent record of a person's hardest struggles which will be used against them over and over for the rest of their lives, be seen by potential employers, or leaked to the world? The buying and selling of our personal details has become a multi-billion dollar a year industry and it's making some people very very wealthy at our expense, but the harm we risk by allowing it continue unrestricted is too great. Recovery programs and addiction services can be court ordered as well, so it's not like everyone will even have a choice here. > Monument, which acquired Tempest in 2022, confirmed the extensive years-long leak of patients’ information in a data breach notification filed with California’s attorney general last week, blaming their use of third-party tracking systems developed by ad giants including Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Pinterest. You can't claim to be surprised when you're using a bunch of services from companies whose entire business model is spying on people and then exploiting that data for profit. That sounds more like an admission of guilt than a deflection of blame to me. I'm sure advertisers will be shoving ads for alcohol into the faces of the victims of Monument and Tempest for the rest of their lives because of this.

dragonwriter 4y ago
> The people running companies doing this kind of thing need prison sentences. HIPAA and, if any federally-involved (even indirectly) treatment was involved, even more stringent [0] (as to disclosure conditions, the penalties are the same) special rules for the protection of federal substance use disorder patients, provide both civil penalties for unauthorized disclosures and criminal penalties for knowingly disclosing or obtaining information without authorization. [0] More stringent, as in, for example, its still a crime to disclose information to someone with a completely valid subpoena for it, unless you have also been issued a special disclosure-authorizing court order in addition to the subpoena.
- 4y ago

andrewstuart 4y ago

Of course they did. It’s Silicon Valley, where the baseline expectation is that company founders don’t even know what ethics and integrity mean.

corbulo 4y ago
SV Cyberpunk dystopia edition will be fascinating to watch from the outside.

andrewstuart 4y ago

Ironically, on the same page of HN: Business 30 under 30-year sentences: why so many of Forbes’ young heroes face jail https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/apr/06/forbes-30-under-30-tech-finance-prison https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/apr/06/forbes-30-u...