FTC complaint names at least fifteen advertising platforms on the Hims site
An FTC complaint filed against Hims & Hers lists at least fifteen advertising platforms that received tracking data from its website, even as the company promised a "100% online, private, and secure process."[1]
The Federal Trade Commission, joined by Utah and Los Angeles County acting for the people of California, sued Hims & Hers Health, Inc. on July 29, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.[2] A close reading of the 48-page complaint found tracking code from at least fifteen advertising platforms running on the company's website, including Meta, Snap, TikTok, Google, Microsoft, X, Pinterest, Reddit, Criteo and The Trade Desk.[1] The complaint sets that against marketing language telling customers they were getting a "100% online, private, and secure process" and that their health information would be "only accessed by the medical providers managing your care," a claim the FTC says ran until at least late August 2023.[1]
Regulators describe two ways data allegedly moved off the site. Hims uploaded lists of certain customers directly to ad platforms, which match those lists against their own users so a company can retarget that group or buy audiences built to resemble it. Separately, the site carried third-party pixels, including the Meta Pixel and Meta's Conversions API, which sends data server-to-server rather than through a visitor's browser, that fired "Events" reporting page views, form answers, cart adds, and completed purchases.[1][2]
The filing brings nine counts total. Six concern the data-sharing conduct under FTC Act Section 5 and California and Utah statutes. The other three are Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act claims unrelated to data: the FTC alleges Hims charged customers after they filled out an intake form but before any provider consultation, and that canceling required finding the option buried inside an "add/remove items from order" menu, with an online cancellation path not arriving until April 2023.[1][2] One consumer quoted in the complaint wrote, "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 charged me immediately!"[1]
Hims disclosed that it received the FTC's investigative demand in October 2023 and that settlement talks with the agency "were unsuccessful." The company's legal accrual for the matter rose from $15 million in May to roughly $60 million as of June 30, 2026, according to its Form 10-Q.[1] Hims calls the lawsuit "an effort to generate headlines at our expense" and says it will "vigorously defend" itself, arguing its privacy policy "makes clear that they may choose how their data is used."[1] Utah Attorney General Derek Brown said, "Hims promised a free consult and private health care. What Utahns actually got was a subscription trap and their most personal health data shipped to advertisers."[2] Shares fell roughly 15% the day the suit was filed but had recovered above their pre-lawsuit level three weeks later.[1]
Why it matters for patients
People using Hims for weight-loss prescriptions, hair loss, erectile dysfunction, or mental health conditions may not know that visiting a checkout page can generate signals sent to companies whose business is building advertising audiences. The FTC's theory is that a customer list tied to a specific prescription is worth more to an advertiser precisely because it can be matched and used to find similar people, which is the opposite of what a promise of privacy implies.[1] The case also does not depend on any hack: regulators say the disclosures were the product of tracking tools the company itself installed. Whether a telehealth platform's marketing website falls under HIPAA is not settled by this complaint; the affiliated medical groups and pharmacies are typically covered, but the consumer-facing site may not be, which is part of why the FTC pursued this case under Section 5 and ROSCA rather than the Health Breach Notification Rule it used against GoodRx and BetterHelp.[1][2]
What happens next
The FTC and its co-plaintiffs are asking the court for a permanent injunction and civil penalties of up to $2,500 per violation under two California statutes, an outcome that, if granted, would be imposed by a court rather than negotiated, unlike the GoodRx and BetterHelp settlements.[1] Hims faces a separate class action, Doe v. Hims & Hers Health, Inc., filed in the same court under the federal wiretap statute and two California privacy laws.[1] The company's $60 million accrual is its own estimate and, per its filing, "may decrease or increase materially in future periods."[1]
Sources
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