Telehealth company Cerebral will limit the consumer health data it uses for advertising purposes under a new order announced by the Federal Trade Commission Monday.
Cerebral, a startup best known for dispensing counseling services and prescriptions for conditions like anxiety and depression, has also agreed to pay $7 million to resolve charges that it disclosed customers’ personal health information to third parties for ads, and that it did not honor its promise to make cancellation easy for customers.
“Cerebral violated its customers’ privacy by revealing their most sensitive mental health conditions across the Internet and in the mail,” FTC Chair Lina Khan said in a statement, noting that the charge is a “first-of-its-kind prohibition that bans Cerebral from using any health information for most advertising purposes.”