来源：《洛杉矶时报》
原文刊登日期：2023年2月10日
Since 2017, GoodRx has helped millions of people find deals on prescription drugs via an app and website. But what its customers may not have known is that the health company had also been sharing information about their prescriptions and illnesses with third parties such as Google and Facebook for advertising purposes.
自2017年以来，GoodRx已经帮助数百万人通过应用程序和网站找到处方药交易。但其客户可能不知道的是，这家健康公司也一直在与谷歌和Facebook等第三方分享他们的处方和疾病信息，以用于广告目的。
Last week, the Federal Trade Commission fined GoodRx $1.5 million for violating customers’ privacy by failing to notify them about how their data were being used. This is the first time the FTC has used a law known as the Health Breach Notification Rule, which is designed to hold accountable for data privacy protections the companies that aren’t covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
上周，美国联邦贸易委员会对GoodRx处以150万美元的罚款，原因是该公司未能告知客户数据的使用方式，侵犯了客户的隐私。这是联邦贸易委员会第一次使用一项名为“健康违约通知规则”的法律，该法律旨在追究未被《健康保险便携性和责任法案》涵盖的公司的数据隐私保护责任。
Good. The enforcement action is a warning to other tech firms at a time of growth in the industry. Increasingly consumers are using apps and wearable devices to monitor their health, and they should know exactly how their personal information is being used.
这很好。这一执法行动是在科技行业增长时期对其他公司的警告。越来越多的消费者使用应用程序和可穿戴设备来监测他们的健康状况，消费者应该确切地知道他们的个人信息是如何被使用的。
It’s heartening that the administration is taking action to protect consumers. In his State of the Union address this week, President Biden advocated for stronger data privacy controls and other protections to rein in technology firms.
令人振奋的是，政府正在采取行动保护消费者。在本周的国情咨文演讲中，拜登总统主张加强数据隐私控制和其他保护措施，以遏制科技公司。
The FTC says GoodRx, whose founders include former Facebook employees, used tracking technology and other software that captures consumer information such as the drugs for which a consumer had requested a coupon, the condition those drugs treat and personally identifiable information such as IP addresses. If a user inquired about a prescription drug for a sexual dysfunction condition, that user might have been targeted by ads for that condition on social media.
美国联邦贸易委员会表示，GoodRx的创始人包括前Facebook员工，该公司使用跟踪技术和其他软件采集消费者信息，比如消费者申请优惠券的药物、这些药物治疗的疾病，以及IP地址等个人身份信息。如果一名用户询问一种治疗性功能障碍的处方药，该用户可能已经成为社交媒体上该疾病广告的目标。
GoodRx, which claims to have saved consumers about $45 billion in prescription drug costs since the company was founded in 2011, denies any wrongdoing. The company says it never shared medical records, that third parties were not allowed to share health data further, and that the same tracking technology is used on many websites, including some used by the U.S. government. But the company agreed to the terms of the settlement, which needs to be approved by a judge, to avoid the costs of further litigation.
GoodRx声称自2011年成立以来，已经为消费者节省了约450亿美元的处方药花费，但该公司否认有任何不当行为。该公司表示，它从未分享过医疗记录，第三方也不被允许进一步分享健康数据，许多网站都使用了相同的跟踪技术，包括美国政府使用的一些网站。但该公司同意了和解条款，以避免进一步诉讼的费用。和解条款需要得到法官的批准。
Seeing ads mentioning an embarrassing medical condition in your personal social media feed may seem like a small price to pay to get a reduced price for a medication, but data privacy specialists say that it could come with serious consequences. For example, data brokers could compile a list of people with cancer that could be used by scam artists marketing a fraudulent treatment.
在你的个人社交媒体上看到广告提到一种令人尴尬的疾病，似乎是为了获得一种药物的降价而付出的小代价，但数据隐私专家表示，这可能会带来严重的后果。例如，数据贩子可以汇编一份癌症患者的名单，骗子可以利用这些名单推销欺骗性的治疗方法。
This action by the FTC is a step in the right direction in guarding consumer health data. For too long, consumers have unwittingly handed over sensitive health information simply by using health apps or other technology devices. This makes it clear that these tech firms must disclose their intentions when collecting consumers’ health data.
联邦贸易委员会的这一行动是朝着保护消费者健康数据的正确方向迈出的一步。长期以来，消费者仅仅通过使用健康应用程序或其他技术设备，就在不知不觉中交出了敏感的健康信息。这表明，这些科技公司在收集消费者健康数据时必须披露其使用意图。