FTC alleges GoodRx app shared user health data

Millions of Americans have used GoodRx, a drug discount app, to search for lower prices on prescriptions like antidepressants, HIV medications and treatments for sexually transmitted diseases at their local drugstores.

But U.S. regulators say the app’s coupons and convenience came at a high cost for users: wrongful disclosure of their intimate health information.

On Wednesday, the Federal Trade Commission accused the app’s developer, GoodRx Holdings, of sharing sensitive personal data about users’ prescription medications and illnesses with companies like Facebook and Google without authorization.

The company’s information-sharing practices, the agency said, violated a federal rule requiring health apps and fitness trackers that collect personal health details to notify consumers of data breaches.

While GoodRx agreed to pay a $1.5 million civil penalty, it disagreed with the agency’s allegations and admitted no wrongdoing.

The FTC’s case against GoodRx could upend widespread user-profiling and ad-targeting practices in the multibilliondollar digital health industry.

In 2019, GoodRx uploaded the contact information of users who had bought certain medications, like blood pressure pills, to Facebook so that the drug discount app could identify its users’ social media profiles, the FTC said in a legal complaint. GoodRx then employed the personal information to target users with ads for medications on Facebook and Instagram, the agency said.

The FTC said those disclosures flouted public promises the company made to “never provide advertisers any information that reveals a personal health condition.”