{"slug": "ftc-concerned-about-meta-surveillance-of-users-of-erectile-dysfunction-apps", "title": "FTC Concerned About Meta Surveillance of Users of Erectile Dysfunction Apps", "summary": "The US Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against telehealth company Hims and Hers, alleging it shared users' health information with Meta and Snap, including data on erectile dysfunction treatments, despite promising privacy. The FTC claims Hims used Meta's automated tracking tools to surveil user actions, affecting 2.6 million active users. Hims and Hers responded that the lawsuit is 'an effort to generate headlines at our expense.'", "body_md": "If you’re among the 2.6 million active users of the popular telehealth apps Hims and Hers to obtain medication for erectile dysfunction, hair loss, and a cavalcade of other intimate issues, there’s probably a very short list of people you want to know about it — and Mark Zuckerberg probably isn’t one of them.\n\nOn Wednesday, the US Federal Trade Commission filed a major lawsuit against Hims and Hers, over allegations the firm was sharing user’s health information with third party companies, [ Gizmodo reported](https://gizmodo.com/hims-hers-health-meta-snap-2000792524). Chief among those third-parties apps was Zuckerberg’s Meta, as well as Snap, two social media companies with\n\n[horrible](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/mar/20/meta-ai-agents-instruction-causes-large-sensitive-data-leak-to-employees)\n\n[track](https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2025/05/184-million-logins-for-instagram-roblox-facebook-snapchat-and-more-exposed-online)\n\n[records](https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-64075067)on protecting sensitive information.\n\nThough Hims and Hers advertises its app-based health services as “100 percent online, private, and secure,” the [FTC suit](https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/cases-proceedings/hims-hers-timeline-item-2026-07-29) alleges “those assurances were false or misleading.”\n\n“Instead of honoring its privacy promises,” the filing says, “Hims opted to grow the company and increase its revenue streams… with advertising platforms such as Meta and Snap.”\n\nThe suit doesn’t blame Meta directly, but argues that Hims and Hers used two “automated tracking technologies offered by Meta” to surveil users’ actions on the telehealth app. “These two tools automatically tracked and disclosed certain Events [user actions] to Meta,” the lawsuit reads.\n\nHims sells all kinds of men’s health meds, but most people know it for one thing: erectile dysfunction pills. While any leak of patient data would be an outrage, the thought that Hims could be sharing this particular kind of medical information is especially horrifying.\n\nIn a [statement](https://investors.hims.com/news/news-details/2026/Hims--Hers-Responds-to-FTC-Lawsuit/), Hims and Hers argued that the FTC’s case “is not enforcement grounded in consumer protection,” but rather “an effort to generate headlines at our expense.”\n\nThe lawsuit comes on the back of a three-year investigation by the FTC, and is currently in the very early stages — meaning it could be years before a final verdict is reached.\n\n**More on Meta: **[Meta’s Attempted Crackdown on AI Glasses Perverts Is Already Failing](https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/meta-attempted-crackdown-ai-glasses-failing)", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ftc-concerned-about-meta-surveillance-of-users-of-erectile-dysfunction-apps", "canonical_source": "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/hims-hers-mark-zuckerberg-meta-ftc-lawsuit-privacy", "published_at": "2026-08-01 12:01:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-01 12:26:48.346330+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy"], "entities": ["Federal Trade Commission", "Hims and Hers", "Meta", "Snap", "Mark Zuckerberg"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ftc-concerned-about-meta-surveillance-of-users-of-erectile-dysfunction-apps", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ftc-concerned-about-meta-surveillance-of-users-of-erectile-dysfunction-apps.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ftc-concerned-about-meta-surveillance-of-users-of-erectile-dysfunction-apps.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ftc-concerned-about-meta-surveillance-of-users-of-erectile-dysfunction-apps.jsonld"}}