A number of NHS trust websites reportedly shared confidential data with Facebook without patients’ consent.

An investigation by newspaper The Observer claimed tracking tools were used across 20 NHS trust websites to collect browsing information and share it with the Meta-owned social media platform.

Meta’s Pixel tool gathered granular information which could be tracked back to individual patients and reveal information ranging from details of appointments and treatments to medical conditions, it said.

The investigation claims that data harvested from visitors to hundreds of NHS webpages, covering topics such as HIV, self-harm, gender identity services, sexual health, cancer, was forwarded on to Facebook for purposes including targeted advertising.

Many of the trusts, however, told The Observer they utilised the tool to monitor either recruitment or charity campaigns and were unaware Pixel was sending confidential data to Facebook.

Seventeen of the 20 NHS trusts using Meta Pixel have since confirmed to The Observer that they have removed the tracking tool from their sites now its activities have come to light.

The news follows Facebook being hit with a £1.2 billion fine by the Irish Data Protection Commission after the social media giant failed to take note of a top EU court’s warnings around protecting users’ data from US security services.

Addressing the reports, a spokesperson for Meta noted that the Observer’s initial enquiry also included wide ranging privacy points for NHS trust websites unrelated to Meta.

“Organisations should not send sensitive information about people through our Business Tools. Doing so is against our policies and we educate advertisers on properly setting up Business tools to prevent this from occurring," they said. "Our system is designed to filter out potentially sensitive data it is able to detect, and we have also contacted the NHS trusts in question to remind them of our policies on how to use our Business Tools."

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