French medical appointment booking startup Doctolib, Necessary to obtain a position Vaccination is going through a delicate period. According to a survey Published on June 21 in German media Dedicated to digital privacy secure mobile, Doctolib has transferred the searches of its German users to advertising agencies at Facebook and Outbrain, a targeted distribution service for advertising articles and content.
Sensitive information is included: the required medical specialty, when the user selects these criteria, the treatment request and the desired sector (public or private). secure mobile He notes that Doctolib also shared the identifier number, or “IP address,” of the device each user is using. “It is therefore difficult to consider the information transmitted to be anonymous,” German media note.
Doctolib chief, Stanislas Knox Chateau stressed to Scientist The presence of these small advertising cookies, or “cookies”, on the German version of its service. According to him, it was immediately deleted after investigation of secure mobile. “We’ve also asked Outbrain to erase all the information we gave them, and that’s done, Confirms to the head of Doctolib. And Facebook has never stored sensitive data. ” The social network, in fact, informed secure mobile That filter sensitive data to it Warn them not to save them. When contacted, Outbrain did not immediately respond to requests from Scientist.
Internal communication campaign
Stanislas Niox-Chateau downplays the importance of these cookies. according to him, They are not present in the French version of Doctolib. Their role was to pursue marketing campaigns aimed at promoting our own services on Facebook and Outbrain. These ads are not targeted according to our customers’ ailments. The information sent to Facebook and Outbrain was not accessible to other companies interested in medical advertising, it was used only for us.”
According to Doctolib, the sensitive information transmitted was not used. Stanislas Knox Chateau defends itself: “The cookies we used were pretty standard, of the same nature as those used everywhere. Our teams didn’t tell me they could have deleted sensitive information.” However, according to our information, data sorting before transmission is possible, and even recommended.
Later, the head of Doctolib admits that the use of advertising cookies is inappropriate in the health sector. While waived by Press release Qiu“It is complicated for users to clearly understand the impact of consent to a cookie,” He noted that the German users in question had clicked a button allowing data sharing.
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