Professor Margaret Hu Interviewed in Law360 Article on Recent FTC Privacy Litigation

Margaret Hu, the Davison M. Douglas Professor of Law and Director of the Digital Democracy Lab at William & Mary Law School, was recently featured as a legal expert in an article from Law360 examining a new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) enforcement action against telehealth company Hims & Hers Health Inc. 

The FTC, joined by the governments of California, Utah, and Los Angeles County, filed a 48-page complaint in late July in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, accusing Hims & Hers of deceptive billing practices and of sharing consumers' sensitive health information with third-party advertisers despite public promises to protect patient privacy. The case, now docketed as Federal Trade Commission et al. v. Hims & Hers Health, Inc., is being closely watched by attorneys and industry analysts as a signal of the agency's broader posture toward digital health platforms.

Among the allegations at the center of the complaint is the company's use of “pixel tags” or “pixel tracking,” a practice of embedding small tags on websites to monitor user activity so that information can be shared with outside parties. The complaint alleges that Hims & Hers used this technology to funnel sensitive health data to advertising platforms such as Meta and Snap.

Speaking with Law360, Hu explained that pixel tracking represents a comparatively new and underappreciated privacy concern for consumers, describing it as "a new form of privacy risk" that the public needs to understand. She noted that while pixel tracking is common practice across many industries, its use becomes especially fraught when deployed by companies handling private health information.

Hu also pointed to a structural gap in U.S. privacy law that gives the FTC's action broader significance. Because Congress has not enacted a comprehensive federal data privacy statute, she explained, enforcement actions like this one increasingly function as a substitute source of guidance, helping to establish practical guardrails and best practices for the health technology industry. In her view, the case offers a preview of which categories of sensitive data, including health information, the agency intends to prioritize going forward.

The action against Hims & Hers follows a string of recent FTC inquiries into telehealth platforms, including GoodRx, Cerebral, and BetterHelp, over similar allegations involving the sharing of sensitive health data with third parties. Hims & Hers has denied wrongdoing, characterizing the lawsuit as an attempt to generate headlines at the company's expense and pledging to contest the claims in court.

Professor Hu's inclusion in the Law360 article builds on her ongoing research at the Digital Democracy Lab, where she studies the intersection of emerging technology, data privacy, and civil rights. Read more about her work with the Digital Democracy Lab here.