NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Data Breach Investigation

Photo Credit: Unsplash | Updated: October 29, 2023

Claim Form Deadline: Ongoing

Estimated Payout: Varies

Proof required: Yes

What is the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Privacy Investigation?

Recently it has come to light that NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital's website utilizes "pixels" that track what website visitors do on their computers. These pixels are tracking everything you do once you visit their website. Not only is this an invasion of privacy, but it has come to light that the tracking technology used on the NewYork-Presbyterian website has exposed patient data to third parties. The hospital is claiming that the only information shared were:

• Patients' Names,
• Patients' Addresses,
• Patients' Email Addresses
• Patient Genders.

Affected NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital campus locations may include one of the following:

• NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center
• NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center
• NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital
• NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital
• NewYork-Presbyterian Hudson Valley Hospital
• NewYork-Presbyterian Westchester (formerly Lawrence Hospital)
• NewYork-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital
• NewYork-Presbyterian Queens
• NewYork-Presbyterian Alexandra Cohen Hospital for Women and Newborns
• NewYork-Presbyterian Komansky Children's Hospital
• NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital
• Sloane Hospital for Women at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital
• NewYork-Presbyterian Westchester Behavioral Health Center
• NewYork-Presbyterian David H. Koch Center
• NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital Center for Community Health

How Would a Data Breach at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Affect Me if I was a Patient?

Data breaches are serious matters that can cause long term damage. Hackers break into networks so that they can steal your personal information to sell it on the dark web, commit identity theft, financial theft or other frauds. An example of a data privacy violation class action in 2023 is the massive $725 Million Facebook class action settlement that was centered around Facebook's inappropriate sharing of user data with third-parties. It is important to protect your personally identifiable information, to take responsibility for and to own your personal data.

Past Privacy Class Actions

There have been a number of high-profile class action settlements related to privacy law violations at the state and federal level. Some of these laws protect consumer data and regulate the collection, use, and storage of biometric data by private entities.

Some notable data privacy class action settlements include:

• Google agreed to pay a huge $100 Million class action settlement over its enormously popular application, Google Photos. The allegation was that people who appeared in Google Photos, while residing in Illinois did not receive proper notice and consent as per government privacy protections.

• Meta Platforms (Facebook): In 2022, Facebook agreed to pay $650 million to settle a class action lawsuit alleging that it violated BIPA by collecting and storing users' facial recognition data without obtaining their consent. The settlement paid out $397 to qualified Illinois Facebook users in late 2022. In 2023, Facebook settled a $725 Million user data privacy class action that affected nearly all United States Facebook users.

• Google: In 2021, Google agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle a BIPA class action lawsuit alleging that it violated the law by collecting and storing biometric data from Google Photos users without obtaining their consent.

• Six Flags: In 2018, Six Flags agreed to pay $36 million to settle a BIPA class action lawsuit alleging that it violated the law by collecting and storing visitors' fingerprints without obtaining their consent.

• SnapChat: In 2022, Snapchat settled a massive $35 Million class action lawsuit over allegations that its “Lenses” and “Filters” features collected users' biometric information, such as their facial information, without complying with legal requirements to inform and get appropriate consent from users.

What Data is Protected by PIPA, GIPA and BIPA?

Here is a breakdown of the types of data protected by the Illinois Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA), the Illinois Genetic Information Privacy Act (GIPA), and the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA):

Type of Data	PIPA	GIPA	BIPA
Personal Information, such as name, address, and Social Security number	X
Financial Information, such as credit card numbers and bank account information	X
Medical Information, such as health records and medical diagnoses	X
Genetic Information, such as DNA or RNA sequences		X
Biometric Information, such as fingerprints, facial recognition data, and iris scans			X