Federal Trade Commission action against Hims and Hers

The Federal Trade Commission, joined by five state attorneys general, filed a lawsuit against Hims & Hers Health, Inc., a direct-to-consumer telehealth and wellness company, alleging deceptive and unlawful privacy practices. The complaint centers on allegations that Hims & Hers misled consumers about how their sensitive health and personal data was being collected, shared, and used for advertising and marketing purposes. The case is particularly significant because it involves the use of pixel tracking technologies, data brokers, and third-party advertising platforms to transmit sensitive health information — including details about consumers' medical conditions and prescriptions — without adequate disclosure or consent. This represents a major regulatory escalation targeting the intersection of health data and digital advertising infrastructure.

This enforcement action carries substantial implications for the AdTech ecosystem, particularly for companies operating in health, wellness, and pharmaceutical verticals that rely on pixel-based tracking, behavioral targeting, and data sharing with advertising platforms such as Meta, Google, and programmatic data brokers. The case reinforces a growing regulatory trend — following similar FTC and HHS actions against GoodRx, BetterHelp, and telehealth providers — that treats the transmission of health-adjacent data to ad tech vendors as a potential HIPAA analog violation and unfair trade practice. Advertisers and publishers in health categories may face pressure to audit their tag management systems, consent frameworks, and data sharing agreements with DSPs, SSPs, and CDPs. The involvement of five state AGs signals coordinated multi-jurisdictional enforcement that could accelerate state-level privacy legislation and increase compliance costs industry-wide. Identity resolution vendors and health data brokers are likely to face heightened scrutiny as downstream recipients of such data flows.