FTC v. Hims & Hers: alleged health data sharing with ad platforms (2026)
At a glance
- Brought by
- Regulator: FTC, with Utah and CaliforniaRegulator
- Company
- Hims & Hers
- Sector
- Telehealth
- Law
- FTC Act (privacy practices)
- Amount
- Pending
- Date
- Filed Jul 29, 2026
- Status
- Pending, no penalty set
Summary
On July 29, 2026, the FTC, joined by Utah and California, sued the telehealth company Hims & Hers, alleging it shared consumers’ health information, including about erectile dysfunction and mental health treatment, with advertising platforms such as Meta and Snap without clearly disclosing it. The case is pending and no penalty has been set.
What happened
The FTC’s claim is that Hims & Hers did not clearly and conspicuously disclose that it would share this information. The complaint describes several channels for the sharing, set out below.
The mechanism
The complaint describes several channels. Hims uploaded customer lists of about 14 million email addresses to Meta and email lists to Snap. It used the Meta Pixel and Meta’s Conversions API, which the complaint describes as a direct connection from the company’s servers to Meta. And it ran pixels from at least 13 more platforms, including Microsoft, Google, Criteo, Pinterest, Reddit, TikTok, the Trade Desk, and X. A pixel is visible in the page’s code. A connection from a company’s own servers is not, which is why it so often runs unnoticed.
Why it was preventable
A scan that walks a real user journey in each consent state, and reads what each tag actually sends, would have shown health-related data leaving the page for ad platforms. Server-side feeds need testing too, because they don’t appear in a simple tag inventory.
In the FTC’s words
The Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, Christopher Mufarrige, described the complaint as alleging “the disclosure to third parties of consumers’ most private health information without their consent.”
Timeline
- Jul 29, 2026suit filed by the FTC with Utah and California. Case pending, no penalty set.
Source
FTC press release and FTC case page.
ftc.govQuestions
Who sued Hims & Hers?
The FTC, joined by the states of Utah and California, filed the suit on July 29, 2026. This is a government enforcement action brought by the FTC and two states, and no private plaintiff is involved.
What did Hims & Hers allegedly do?
The FTC alleges the company shared consumers’ health information, including about erectile dysfunction and mental health treatment, with advertising platforms through tracking pixels, Meta’s Conversions API and uploaded customer lists, without clearly disclosing it.
Why are server-side feeds harder to catch?
A client-side pixel appears in the page’s code. A server-side feed sends data from the company’s own servers, so it does not show up in a simple tag inventory and has to be tested directly.
Related cases
Aspen Dental pixel settlement
Meta Pixel and Google Analytics on appointment site (alleged)
Kaiser Permanente pixel settlement
Quantum Metric, X, Adobe, Bing, Google trackers
OAIC finds health tracking pixels in breach
Health pixels sending data to ad platforms
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