Masters of the Universe: Facebook Seeked Patient Data from Hospitals

Facebook was in discussions with top hospitals up until last month about the possibility of sharing the medical info of vulnerable patients with the social media platform.

CNBC reports that as late as last week, Facebook was in talks with several major U.S. hospital to share anonymized data about their patients with the social media platform. The info was reportedly for a research project and would include details about patients such as their illnesses and prescription information. Facebook planned to match the hospital info with user data supposedly in an attempt to help hospitals determine which patients may need special care or treatment.

The proposal was reportedly still in the planning phase and has been put on hold following the Cambridge Analytica user data scandal, but the proposal itself provides a worrying insight into the level of data that Facebook is attempting to collect on users. A Facebook spokesperson told CNBC: “This work has not progressed past the planning phase, and we have not received, shared, or analyzed anyone’s data.”

More