healthcare startup Brain faces intense scrutiny and backlash after accidentally sharing private data with tech giants like alphabet inc GOOD Google, Metaplatforms Inc. META And tick tock, owned by Chinas ByteDance.

What happened: The US Department of Health is investigating Cerebral for sharing the personal information of more than 3.1 million US patients with tech giants and advertisers, including Google, Meta and Co Tick ​​tock.

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The notice the startup released last week reads, “On January 3, 2023, Cerebral determined that it would transfer certain information that may be regulated as protected health information (“PHI”) under HIPAA to certain third-party platforms and subcontracted some without obtaining the required HIPAA representations.”

Information includes patient names, phone numbers, dates of birth, and insurance information. In some cases, it may even have disclosed the data collected through mental health self-assessment tests used to book counseling appointments and other services.

According to the startup, no information such as social security numbers, bank information or credit card numbers was shared.

Why it matters: The latest data exposure news comes after Federal Trade Commissionor FTC, fined discount drug app GoodRx $1.5 million for sharing confidential patient information with companies like Meta and Google, reported Engadget.

The regulator also announced a $7.8 million settlement with BetterHelp, an online consulting firm. It also said FTC is scrambling to block the company from sharing health data, including mental health information, with tech giants like Facebook And Snapchat.

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