Cerebral class action claims teletherapy company breach affects 3M patients

Cerebral data breach class action overview: 

• Who: A Washington woman is suing the mental health platform Cerebral.
• Why: The plaintiff says the company has been secretly sharing its users private mental health data with Meta and Google.
• Where: The Cerebral data breach class action was filled in a California federal court.

Mental health platform Cerebral put “profits over people” by installing covert tracking technologies on its website and app and then sharing its users’ private mental health data with Facebook, Google and Tik Tok, a new class action lawsuit alleges. 

Plaintiff Jane Doe filed the class action lawsuit against Cerebral Inc. on March 23 in a California federal court, alleging violations of state and federal privacy laws. 

Cerebral is a tele-therapy and medication management company purportedly focused on helping people suffering with insomnia, anxiety and depression, among other mental health issues, the plaintiff states.

According to the lawsuit, Cerebral installed certain tracking technologies on its platforms in order to intercept and to send its users’ private information to third parties such as Meta Platforms and Google without their informed consent, so that they might be targeted with ads.

“Despite the stigmas that unfortunately are so often associated with mental health issues and treatments, Cerebral intentionally chose to put its profits over the privacy of its Users, which number several million,” the lawsuit states.

Cerebral lied about keeping its users’ mental health data confidential, lawsuit states

Despite representing that it keeps its users’ mental health data confidential, Cerebral recently publicly acknowledged that it has been using invisible trackers from Google, Facebook, TikTok and other third parties on its online services since Oct. 12, 2019, the lawsuit states.

“Cerebral did not publicly acknowledge its collection and dissemination of its Users’ Private Information until March 6, 2023 when it finally posted a notice on its Website.” 

The information that is allegedly illegally sent to these third parties—which includes name, social security number, lab results, referrals and emotional characteristics—can be associated with other information to create “very fulsome user profiles” that can be mined for marketing and other commercial purposes, the lawsuit states. 

For example, in the case of information sent by Cerebral to Facebook, it was then linked to the plaintiff’s unique Facebook user ID, so that there was no anonymity, she alleges.

The plaintiff is suing for violations of California privacy and business law, branch of federal privacy laws and breach of contract.

She’s looking to represent anyone in the United States whose private information was disclosed by Cerebral to a third party without authorization or consent. She is seeking certification of the class action, damages, fees, costs and a jury trial, as well as an order preventing Cerebral from doing the alleged data sharing practice.

Data breach healthcare victims may have their personal information compromised, along with valuable insurance and medical data, putting them at risk. This has happened multiple times around the country, with more attacks occurring each year. Click here for more information. 

What do you think of the allegations against Cerebral? Let us know in the comments! 

The plaintiff is represented by Graham B. LippSmith, MaryBeth LippSmith and Jaclyn L. Anderson of Lippsmith LLP and David S. Almeida of Almeida Law Group LLC.

The Cerebral Inc class action lawsuit is Jane Doe, et al. v. Cerebral Inc., Case No. 2:23-cv-02190 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. 

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