Blake Landis of Troutman Amin, LLP writes:
Your search history reveals more about you than you might realize. If you’ve ever noticed suspiciously specific medical ads appearing after researching health concerns online, you’re not just being paranoid; you’re witnessing sophisticated tracking technologies at work.
A federal court in Florida handed down a decision that should make us pause before typing that symptom into a healthcare website’s search bar. Here, this case involves a patient who claimed her medical searches on Orlando Health’s website allegedly led to targeted Facebook ads for her specific medical conditions. See W.W. v. Orlando Health, Inc., No. 6:24-cv-1068-JSS-RMN, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 40038 (M.D. Fla. Mar. 6, 2025).
Judge Julie S. Sneed’s ruling in W.W. v. Orlando Health, Inc. denied most of the healthcare provider’s attempts to dismiss the lawsuit, potentially opening the door for closer scrutiny of how medical websites track and share our sensitive health information. As someone who has researched medical information online in the past (who doesn’t these days?), I wondered exactly what happens when I click that “search” button on my insurance carrier’s website.
Read more at The National Law Review.