After investigations by The Markup and Brazil's Agência Pública, Doctoralia, the world's largest health appointments platform, removed web trackers that were sending user data to Google, LinkedIn and TikTok.
When you book a doctor online, you probably assume only the platform knows which department you searched, what date you picked and which doctor you chose.
A tracker is a small program embedded in a web page, originally meant to count visitors and serve ads. An investigation found that Doctoralia's trackers passed the department, appointment time and doctor's name to Google, LinkedIn and TikTok.
The reviewed data did not include patient names, but trackers assign each user a unique ID that can be matched to social media accounts. Privacy advocates note that searching for reproductive health care could imply pregnancy or an attempt to conceive.
After the fix
The parent company DocPlanner's spokesperson said an internal review 'did not identify anything that raises concerns about our users' privacy', but it is adding extra measures, without saying what they are.
As of last week, the trackers had either been removed or changed so they no longer collected personal information. How long they had been collecting data remains unclear. In the end, a medical visit can sometimes be just a label in an advertiser's hands.
Why it matters
Plenty of sites install trackers just to sell ads, rarely noticing that a health-related search can be turned straight into an advertising profile. For patients, checking a booking site's third-party code matters about as much as checking the doctor's credentials.
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