GoodRx Saves Money on Meds—It Also Shares Data With Google, Facebook, and Others

guest · Mar 3, 2020

GoodRx Saves Money on Meds—It Also Shares Data With Google, Facebook, and Others
February 27, 2020
https://www.consumerreports.org/hea...sers-health-data-with-google-facebook-others/

A few weeks ago, a Philadelphia resident named Marie received a prescription for a new medication, but the drug wasn’t covered by her insurance. “It was way too expensive for me to get on my own,” she says.

“So I reached back out to my doctor. She directed me to GoodRx, and said I’d be able to afford the medicine with one of their coupons.”
The doctor was right. “The discount was about $500,” Marie says. “I was excited to go fill the prescription and not have to worry about it anymore.”

However, there is a tradeoff involved.
While people like Marie are saving money with GoodRx, the company’s digital products are sending personal details about them to more than 20 other internet-based companies.

Google, Facebook, and a marketing company called Braze all receive the names of medications people are researching, along with other details that could let them pinpoint whose phone or laptop is being used.
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“It’s becoming a situation where privacy is for the privileged,” says Dena Mendelsohn, a senior policy counsel for Consumer Reports.
Medication Names Are Shared
To determine how GoodRx shares data, we monitored traffic using a data packet-capturing tool to observe the company's Android mobile app and website as we searched for deals on a number of prescription medications.

Like other companies we talked to, Braze assures Consumer Reports that the data collected isn’t shared broadly with data brokers or advertising companies. Braze says the data is only used to help GoodRx target its own users with information.
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guest · Mar 3, 2020

GoodRx stops sharing personal medical data with Google, Facebook
March 3, 2020
https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/20...g-personal-medical-data-with-google-facebook/

GoodRx – a mobile app that saves US consumers money on prescription drugs – has apologized and sworn to do better after a Consumer Reports investigation found that it was sharing people’s data with 20 other internet-based companies.
The details GoodRx was sharing could lead to companies being able to infer “highly intimate details” about users, Consumer Reports said:

"With the information coming off our test phone and browser, a company could infer highly intimate details about GoodRx users suffering from serious chronic conditions, and make educated guesses about their sexual orientation."
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On Friday, GoodRx said in a blog post that it has “never and will never sell our users’ personal health information.” Having said that, the Consumer Reports story led the company to re-examine its policies when it comes to sharing data with third parties. The review led GoodRx to determine that at least in the case of Facebook advertising, it was “not living up to our own standards.”

"For this we are truly sorry, and we will do better."

GoodRx explained how it shares data with specific third parties, including, for example, how it uses Google Analytics to evaluate and improve the quality of the information it provides across its website, including its drug coupon pages.
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GoodRx: GoodRx and Data Privacy

In the course of our review, we found that in the case of Facebook advertising, we were not living up to our own standards.
The trust of our users is paramount, so we are taking the following steps to ensure we remain on the forefront of protecting consumer privacy: [...]

To explain why we work with third-parties, we sometimes partner with trusted, certified service providers to improve our products and provide the best customer experience.
For instance, when a user opts-in to remind them to refill a prescription, we use Braze, a messaging service that operates at the highest standards of data privacy, to email or text a reminder. We may also notify users when we find a better price for their prescription.

To reach new customers who might find GoodRx useful, we place advertisements for GoodRx on third-party platforms, including Facebook and Google. [...]
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GoodRx Saves Money on Meds—It Also Shares Data With Google, Facebook, and Others

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