Kaiser class action claims company lets Google, Twitter ‘wiretap’ sensitive health information

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Kaiser health class action lawsuit overview: 

• Who: An John Doe plaintiff filed a class action lawsuit against Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc. 
• Why: Doe claims Kaiser intercepts and discloses the website interactions of its patients with third parties such as Google, Bing and Twitter, among others. 
• Where: The class action lawsuit was filed in California federal court. 

Kaiser Permanente discloses the website interactions and communications of its patients with third parties such as Google, Twitter, and Bing, among others, a new class action lawsuit alleges. 

A John Doe plaintiff claims Kaiser allows the third parties to “intercept” its patients’ statuses, choices made, identifying information, medical topics researched, and the information they shared and communicated with their medical providers. 

Doe argues Kaiser allegedly shares the private information in defiance of a “reasonable expectation” among patients that such data would be kept private, and that doing so “constitutes an egregious invasion of … privacy.” 

“Plaintiff and Class Members have suffered harm and injury as a direct and proximate result of Kaiser Permanente’s invasion of their privacy,” the Kaiser class action states.  

Doe wants to represent a nationwide class and California subclass of individuals who have used the Kaiser Permanente website, and nationwide and California breach of contract subclasses of individuals who have used the Portal on the Kaiser Permanente website. 

Kaisers  ‘transmits and redirects’ patients’ website interactions with third parties, says class action

Doe claims Kaiser has embedded a code into its website that “transmits and redirects” the interactions of its website users to the third parties “from the very moment that a user first loads Kaiser Permanente’s website.” 

The data transmitting then continues as the patient “navigates through the website researching and sharing sensitive information,” the Kaiser class action alleges. 

“Once the website loads, the Third Party Wiretappers continue to intercept the content of patients’ communications with Kaiser Permanente in real time as the patient navigates the website,” the Kaiser class action states. 

Doe claims Kaiser is guilty of breach of implied and express contract, invasion of privacy, common law invasion of privacy via intrusion upon seclusion, and of violating the California Constitution, the California Invasion of Privacy Act, and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. 

Plaintiff is demanding a jury trial and requesting declaratory and injunctive relief along with an award of nominal, statutory, and punitive damages for themselves and all class members. 

Similar class action lawsuits have been filed against companies such as Ulta, Spirit Airlines, and Papa John’s, among others, for allegedly unlawfully intercepting the electronic communications of website visitors. 

Have you visited Kaiser Permanente’s website? Let us know in the comments! 

The plaintiff is represented by Jennifer L. Joost, Joseph H. Meltzer, Melissa L. Yeates, Tyler S. Graden, and Jordan E. Jacobson of Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP. 

The Kaiser health class action lawsuit is Doe, et al. v. Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc., et al., Case No. 4:23-cv-02207, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

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