FTC Sues Hims & Hers: Health Data Shared with Meta, Snap—Stock Drops 12%

For legal and compliance professionals, the FTC’s suit against Hims & Hers marks a significant escalation in health data privacy enforcement, underscoring the legal peril of lax data-sharing agreements and the use of tracking pixels on healthcare websites. The inclusion of state and local co-plaintiffs signals a coordinated regulatory strategy that could expand the jurisdictional reach and potential damages.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission's lawsuit against telehealth giant Hims & Hers, filed on July 29, 2026, strikes at the heart of digital health privacy and consumer protection. The complaint, joined by Los Angeles County and Utah, alleges that the company systematically shared sensitive user health information with advertising platforms Meta and Snap — even as it promised customers their data would remain private. Concurrently, the FTC accuses Hims & Hers of deceptive billing and convoluted cancellation procedures. The news sent Hims & Hers stock down roughly 12% in immediate trading, reflecting a market that now fears significant regulatory and reputational consequences.

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The complaint, joined by Los Angeles County and Utah, alleges that the company systematically shared sensitive user health information with advertising platforms Meta and Snap — even as it promised customers their data would remain private.

Hims & Hers operates in a particularly intimate segment of telehealth, providing online consultations and prescriptions for conditions such as erectile dysfunction, premature ejaculation, hair loss, obesity, and mental health issues. These are precisely the kinds of conditions that consumers most wish to keep confidential. According to the FTC, the company used tracking technologies on its website to transmit health data to Meta (Instagram, Facebook) and Snap (Snapchat) — a practice that effectively repackaged the most personal of medical concerns into fodder for targeted advertising. The complaint notes that users’ interactions with the Hims & Hers site, including intake forms and pages viewed, were fed to the advertising giants, enabling the creation of detailed profiles for ad targeting. This allegation echoes earlier FTC actions against health tech firms like GoodRx and Easy Healthcare, but the scale and sensitivity of Hims & Hers’s data make this case particularly weighty.

The deceptive billing accusations further compound the company’s legal exposure. The FTC alleges that Hims & Hers charged customers immediately after they submitted an intake form, rather than after a promised consultation with a healthcare professional. Furthermore, most customers never actually received a consultation but were billed for prescriptions anyway. Customers also faced hurdles when trying to cancel subscriptions, a violation of the FTC Act’s prohibition on unfair and deceptive practices. One consumer quoted in the complaint stated, “I was told that I would be able to speak with a doctor in a few days and that nothing would be charged to my card that day. Him’s & Her’s [sic] charged me immediately!” Such testimony underscores the potential for widespread consumer harm.

For the telehealth industry, the case signals a sharp escalation in federal oversight. Since 2023, the FTC has been actively investigating Hims & Hers, and this lawsuit may be the culmination of a broader probe into digital health data flows. The agency’s focus on the intersection of health data and advertising technology — particularly the use of Meta’s and Snap’s tracking pixels — marks a new front in privacy enforcement. Christopher Mufarrige, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, warned that the agency “will not hesitate to act on behalf of consumers deprived of their ability to choose which products they want and whether to keep their most sensitive health information private.” The joint filing with state and local governments also signals a coordinated multi-jurisdictional push that could multiply the legal and financial risks.