A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Third-party data leaks on websites of medical condition support associations
Authors: Rauti, Sampsa; Carlsson, Robin; Puhtila, Panu; Heino, Timi; Mäkilä, Tuomas; Leppänen, Ville
Publisher: OAE Publishing Inc.
Publication year: 2025
Journal: Journal of Surveillance, Security and Safety
Volume: 6
First page : 1
Last page: 16
eISSN: 2694-1015
DOI: https://doi.org/10.20517/jsss.2024.15
Publication's open availability at the time of reporting: Open Access
Publication channel's open availability : Open Access publication channel
Web address : https://doi.org/10.20517/jsss.2024.15
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/508540384
Self-archived copy's licence: CC BY
Self-archived copy's version: Publisher`s PDF
The internet has become a primary source of health information for many people. For example, the websites of many medical condition support associations, meant for people suffering from various medical conditions, contain information on different medical conditions, treatments, and general health advice. However, accessing such information can be a serious privacy threat for the end user. In this article, we study the privacy of the websites of 18 Finnish medical condition support associations. The websites were analyzed to find leakages of sensitive personal data to third parties. Our investigation concludes that 88.9% of the websites leaked potentially sensitive personal data to third parties, usually private corporations offering web analytics tools such as Google Analytics. Furthermore, we discovered that users are not adequately informed about these data processing activities. We suggest several measures to alleviate third-party data leaks on websites handling sensitive personal data.
Downloadable publication This is an electronic reprint of the original article. |
Funding information in the publication:
This research has been funded by the Academy of Finland project 327397, IDA – Intimacy in Data-Driven Culture.