MarinHealth agreed to pay $3 million to resolve a class action lawsuit over installing the Meta Pixel tracking code on its website from 2019 to 2025. MarinHealth manages Marin Health Medical Center and several outpatient clinics located in Sonoma County and Marin County in California. MarinHealth is one of the healthcare providers that put Meta Pixel and other tracking codes on its website to collect visitor data.
Meta Pixel, much like other website tracking tools, collects information from people who view a website where it is installed. The tool functions as a collector of data concerning website usage, as well as data that can be employed for individual identification. That data is subsequently sent to Meta and can be utilized to show personalized ads to web users. Meta Pixel can gather data from button clicks, dropdown menus, and the pages a user visits on a healthcare site, and then show ads associated with a health problem the user has, thinks he has, or has looked up.
The plaintiffs filed a lawsuit in the Superior Court of the State of California, in the County of Marin – Doe, et al. v. Marin Health Medical Center. It alleges that Marin Health used Meta Pixel and other tracking tools on its website from August 1, 2019 to May 27, 2025 and gathered and disclosed sensitive data to third parties without user permission, which is a privacy violation. The lawsuit states that the plaintiffs and class members suffered harm because of this.
MarinHealth rejects the claims stated against it in the lawsuit, denies all accusations of wrongdoing and liability, and rejects all material allegations submitted as part of the complaint on March 21, 2024. Because of the potential costs of prolonged litigation and the uncertainty and complications of trial, all parties agreed to settle. The terms of the settlement state that MarinHealth will create a $3 million settlement fund. The fund will pay for the attorneys’ fees, legal expenses, and class representative awards. Attorneys’ charges will not go over $1,000,000, and legal expenses will not go over $50,000. Each named plaintiff will be paid a $2,000 service award. The balance of the settlement will cover cash payments to confirmed class members.
The amount of the cash payments will be decided based on the number of claims submitted. For instance, 3% of class members file a cash payment claim, cash payment is estimated to be $261 per class member. If 10% of class members file a claim, each of the class members will receive approximately $78 cash payment. Any leftover funds after checks are released and encashed or expired will be distributed cy pres. MarinHealth has likewise consented to delete Meta Pixel codes from its website. No tracking code will be used without notifying and getting permission from website users. This point should be included in the HIPAA training of employees to ensure that employees are aware of this agreement.
