Summary of article from The Record, by Suzanne Smalley:
A Texas federal judge ruled that the Biden administration’s policy to limit hospitals’ use of online tracking technology overstepped its authority. The policy, issued by the HHS in 2022, aimed to protect user privacy by warning that third-party data collection could violate HIPAA. Despite the HHS’s recent revision and warnings about the risks of technologies like Meta/Facebook Pixel and Google Analytics, the judge found that the guidance improperly extended HIPAA’s reach to data from public website searches. This decision followed a lawsuit from the American Hospital Association and other plaintiffs. The ruling underscores the complexity and extensive reach of federal regulations in modern life.