FTC sues Hims & Hers over alleged health data sharing and subscription practices
FTC and state officials sued Hims & Hers, alleging health data sharing with ad platforms and deceptive subscription practices.
The Federal Trade Commission and officials in Utah and California have sued Hims & Hers, turning a long-running concern about health app tracking into a fresh test for consumer privacy rules in telehealth. The July 29 complaint alleges that the company shared sensitive health information with advertising platforms while telling customers that its services protected their privacy.
The FTC says the San Francisco-based telehealth provider sent information to Meta, Snap and other third parties through customer lists and website tracking technologies. According to the agency, the shared information related to medical conditions and site actions taken by visitors. The complaint also challenges Hims' billing flow, alleging that many customers were charged and enrolled in recurring prescription subscriptions shortly after completing an intake form, before they had a meaningful chance to review or approve the treatment.
Why It Matters
The case sits at the intersection of online advertising, subscription commerce and digital health care. Telehealth services commonly rely on web forms, analytics tools and automated customer journeys, but regulators are signaling that medical context changes the privacy baseline. The FTC says Hims' practices violated the FTC Act and the Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act. Utah and California added state consumer protection claims, and the complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
The agency also alleges that cancellation was made unnecessarily difficult. Before 2023, the complaint says most consumers had to contact customer service by phone, email or chat to cancel. Even after online cancellation became more broadly available, the FTC says the cancellation path was hidden behind account-management steps that did not immediately use the word cancel.
Hims Disputes The Claims
Hims & Hers rejected the lawsuit in a same-day investor statement. The company said the agency ignored evidence from a nearly three-year investigation, disregarded state law and telehealth industry standards, and was trying to manufacture claims. Hims said customers have information needed to make decisions about its services and argued that its privacy policy explains how customers can choose how data is used.
The dispute is likely to be watched beyond one company because it concerns common growth tactics in consumer health technology: targeted advertising, tracking pixels, online intake workflows and auto-renewing treatment plans. For telehealth providers, the filing is another reminder that privacy assurances, billing consent and cancellation design can become enforcement issues when they are embedded in software rather than handled in a clinic or pharmacy.
Sources
Cover photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels, used under the Pexels License.
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