February 19, 2025
A California federal judge considering sanctions against Meta for deleting data in privacy litigation over a Facebook tool’s collection of patient health information said Wednesday that he’s not convinced Meta had “malintent,” but said, “I do think this information should have been preserved.”
The comments from U.S. District Judge William H. Orrick came at the conclusion of oral arguments on the healthcare consumers’ motion for sanctions against Meta Platforms Inc. over the destroyed data.
The missing information is what’s known as “click button” or “button click” data that the plaintiffs say Meta failed to save for several months after the case was filed in June 2022. At the heart of the case is Meta’s Pixel tool, which captures data about patient portal logins and the online scheduling of medical appointments by tracking when a patient clicks buttons on healthcare websites, according to the complaint. The plaintiffs say Meta is not allowed to have that information under state and federal law and its terms of service.
At the start of Wednesday’s hearing, held over Zoom, Judge Orrick said Meta had a duty to not delete the information and failed to take reasonable steps to preserve it, but he wasn’t sure that he could say at this stage of the case that there was prejudice.
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A lawyer for the plaintiffs and the proposed class, Geoffrey Graber of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, said the deleted data is relevant to the case.
“There was no excuse for the destruction of this data,” Graber told the court.
Further, Meta realized in January 2023 that the data hadn’t been saved, and didn’t immediately inform the court or the plaintiffs, the lawyer said.
“The destroyed button click records are proof of millions of privacy violations,” Graber said. “They’re gone.”
At the very least, the court should let Meta know that it can’t take advantage of the situation it created at the certification stage.
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The healthcare plaintiffs and the proposed class are represented by Geoffrey Graber of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, Jason “Jay” Barnes of Simmons Hanly Conroy LLC, Jeffrey A. Koncius of Kiesel Law LLP, Beth E. Terrell of Terrell Marshall Law Group PLLC and Andre M. Mura of Gibbs Law Group LLP.
Read Meta Should’ve Preserved Health Tracking Data, Judge Says.