Meta’s Pixel is an amazing marketing tool. It is an analytical tool that allows businesses to track their website visitors’ activities. Ultimately, it helps identify Facebook and Instagram users and see how they interacted with the content on websites. This information can be used to target people with ads based on interests, preferences and their online behavior. It also allows businesses to track ad performance. Each time a person visits a website, Pixel sends Facebook and Instagram the information about who is visiting the website and the actions they are taking on the website. Every health care provider should be considering the benefits and risks of using Pixel and how to mitigate that risk.

Pixel is also responsible for tens of millions of dollars of settlements in the health care industry. A 2022 study by The Markup found that 33 of the top 100 hospitals in America were using Pixel and sending Facebook information whenever a person clicked a button to schedule a doctor’s appointment. The study also determined that seven of the health systems surveyed also had Pixel installed inside password-protected patient portals. Those statistics make clear that lawsuits over the use of Pixel to capture Protected Health Information (PHI) will be expanding.