The Latest Privacy Settlement
- Who pays: Google (~$48M) and Flo Health (~$8M), pending approval.
- Core allegation: Sensitive reproductive health information was shared with third parties via embedded SDKs/trackers without sufficiently explicit, informed consent (historic period: roughly 2016–2019).
- Co-defendant status: Meta did not settle; a jury later found Meta liable under California privacy law—damages phase to follow.
- Why this stings: Statutory privacy laws can multiply damages per user or per transmission; plaintiffs don’t need to prove individualized harm for every class member.
Why It Matters (Beyond Flo)
Reproductive and health-adjacent data is among the most sensitive personal information a product can touch. Even “derived” or “inferred” signals (cycle predictions, pregnancy status, symptom notes) carry heightened expectations of confidentiality. When telemetry flows to ad/analytics partners without granular consent and tight purpose limits, plaintiffs can frame it as unlawful disclosure—especially under state wiretap, medical-privacy, or invasion-of-privacy statutes. For platforms, that becomes an exponential risk curve.
Related 2025 Actions You Should Have on Your Radar
Aspen Dental — Pixel/Telemetry Lawsuit
Result: $18.7 million to resolve claims that marketing pixels on dental sites disclosed patient interactions and visit details to third parties. The broader lesson: web pixels can be litigated like app SDKs. Health-adjacent sites are squarely in scope, even when no formal HIPAA relationship exists.
Headway (Mental-Health Platform) — Litigation Still Active
Status: No class settlement announced at the time of writing. Courts allowed key medical-privacy claims to proceed, keeping focus on whether trackers/analytics exposed sensitive therapy-related interactions. Mental-health contexts are drawing stricter judicial scrutiny; expect more discovery fights over telemetry.
Other Signals
- State AG mega-matters: Large state actions (e.g., Texas v. Google over data collection practices) show attorneys general are willing to pursue blockbuster penalties outside the class-action channel.
- FTC enforcement/refunds: Cases like BetterHelp reinforce the federal view that sharing mental-health data for advertising is a bright-line problem when disclosures and consents are ambiguous.
Three Product Lessons for Founders and GCs
- Treat SDKs and pixels like data processors, not “just tools.” Maintain a processor registry, data-flow map, and purpose limits for each library. If you can’t justify the signal, don’t send it.
- Consent must be explicit, granular, and enforced in code. Tie consent to specific features (e.g., cycle predictions, community, ads personalization), record it, honor revocation, and minimize by default.
- Design for statutory-damages regimes. Assume per-user, per-transmission exposure. Log, segregate, and block sensitive events by default; quarantine anything that could reveal health status without an opt-in.
How Captain Compliance Keeps You Out of the Headlines
- Data Classification: Auto-tag reproductive/health, communications, and biometric signals as “sensitive” to trigger encryption, retention limits, and access controls.
- Vendor & SDK Oversight: Centralize all trackers/processors with risk scores, DPAs, and purpose constraints; block unapproved libraries in CI/CD.
- API & Pixel Risk Assessment: Continuous scans for cross-account leakage, overbroad payloads, and covert signal sharing to ad/analytics endpoints.
- Consent & Purpose Logging: Feature-level opt-ins tied to lawful basis, purpose, and expiry—provable in audits and court.
- DSAR Automation: Respond at scale to access/deletion requests after incidents; show regulators a working rights pipeline, not a promise.
Get Compliant Now and Avoid Multi-Million Dollar Fines
The $56M Flo/Google deal isn’t an outlier—it’s a milestone. Health and wellness products that treat telemetry as a free-for-all are inviting eight-figure settlements and open-ended litigation. Build privacy in before plaintiffs and regulators build your roadmap for you.
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