Privacy Breach at Kaiser Permanente Impacts 13.4 Million Members and Patients

Kaiser Permanente, a leading health care provider, has recently revealed a privacy breach that has potentially impacted over 13.4 million individuals. The organization, known for its commitment to privacy and patient care, promptly took action to address the issue.

The breach involved unauthorized collection of sensitive data, including IP addresses, members’ names, and records indicating how members browsed Kaiser’s website and mobile applications. It was identified that this data collection was caused by code embedded on the affected sites.

Significantly, experts have categorized this incident as a privacy breach rather than a data breach. In a data breach, the objective is to illegally gain access to and sell individuals’ personal information. However, Kaiser’s privacy breach involved the sharing of personal data with other organizations, potentially including Twitter/X, Google, and Microsoft.

Dr. Clifford Neuman, Director of USC Center for Computer Systems Security, comments, “In the case of a privacy breach, which this seems to be, it’s an instance where Kaiser shared personal data with other organizations, in this case, potentially Twitter/X, potentially Google, potentially Microsoft.”

Kaiser Permanente responded promptly to the breach by conducting a voluntary internal investigation into the use of online technologies. They swiftly identified the issue and subsequently removed the implicated technologies from their websites and mobile applications.

Remarkably, Kaiser Permanente has reassured its affected members that no usernames, passwords, Social Security numbers, financial account information, or credit card numbers were included in the data inadvertently transmitted to third parties including Twitter/X, Google, and Microsoft.

Apologizing to its members, Kaiser Permanente assured them that they have taken necessary steps to prevent the recurrence of similar data privacy breaches in the future. The organization has implemented enhanced safeguards and implemented additional measures to ensure the utmost security of members’ sensitive information.