FTC sues Hims & Hers over alleged sharing of health data and billing practices
The Facts
- The Federal Trade Commission sued Hims & Hers on Wednesday.
- The lawsuit alleges Hims & Hers shared users' sensitive health information with third-party advertising platforms, including Meta and Snap, despite telling users their information would be kept private.
- The complaint was filed in federal court in the Northern District of California.
- The FTC filed the case along with Los Angeles County and Utah.
- The lawsuit also accuses Hims & Hers of deceptive billing and cancellation practices.
- Among the billing allegations, regulators say Hims & Hers charged some customers for prescriptions before they had spoken with a healthcare provider.
- Hims & Hers is a telehealth company that offers online access to care and prescriptions for areas including weight loss, hair loss, erectile dysfunction, and mental health, making the case relevant to a large direct-to-consumer healthcare business.
- Hims & Hers has disputed the allegations and said it will defend itself against the lawsuit.
Context
What is the FTC accusing Hims & Hers of?
The FTC says Hims & Hers shared users' sensitive health information with advertising platforms such as Meta and Snap despite privacy promises, and also used deceptive billing and cancellation practices Aol,Reuters,Morningstar.
Who joined the FTC in the lawsuit?
The case was filed with Los Angeles County and Utah, according to multiple reports on the complaint CNBC,Independent,CNA.
How has Hims & Hers responded?
Hims & Hers said it will defend itself, and the company has said its privacy policy allows customers to choose how their data is used Investing.com. It has also called the FTC's claims baseless in a public response Barchart.com.
Where Left and Right agree, and where they split
- Where Left and Right agree
- Sensitive health data and billing in telehealth demand real trust, and alleged privacy promises broken before care was delivered would represent a serious consumer harm.
- Where Left and Right split
- Protecting patients from health-data exploitation, or enforcing accountability when a telehealth company breaks the promises its business depends on.
How left and right read it
Meta and Snap are named in a suit alleging Hims & Hers shared sensitive health information after telling users it would be kept private. That matters because this is telehealth: people seeking care for mental health, erectile dysfunction, weight loss, and more should not be exposed to data extraction or charged before speaking with a healthcare provider. Health care privacy and basic consumer protection are nonnegotiable.
The FTC, joined by Los Angeles County and Utah, sued Hims & Hers in federal court, alleging it shared sensitive health data despite privacy promises and billed some customers before they had spoken with a healthcare provider. In a direct-to-consumer healthcare business, trust is the product. If a company makes these promises, what enforces real accountability when it breaks them?
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Wire services (2)
Independent coverage (44)
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