Popular social media platform Facebook has been accused of failing to protect sensitive health data of users in its groups.
A complaint filed with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Monday. Complaint suggests "Facebook has marketed this product as a Personal Health Record and it then leaked the health data that those patients uploaded to the public.
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members of a women's group with a gene mutation in June, discovered how easily the names and email addresses of members could have been downloaded in bulk, either manually or through a Chrome extension, The Verge reported. At that time, Facebook reportedly claimed to have made changes to "Groups" that ended the practice and emphasised on the option for join "Secret Groups" - that are, although difficult to join, but have a more limited discoverability.
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The complaint highlights that public sharing of privately posted personal health information is in violation of the law, which is a serious problem with Facebook's privacy implementation ways
The complaint asserted, "Facebook has ignored our requests to fix the specific issues we have identified to the company, and denies publicly that any problem exists. All of this represents unfair, deceptive and misleading interactions between Facebook and its users in violation of the FTC act.” The company has not given any official statement on the subject as yet.