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FTC sues Hims & Hers for allegedly sharing patients’ medical data with advertisers Meta and Snap
6:30 AM PDT · July 30, 2026
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The Federal Trade Commission is suing healthcare giant Hims & Hers for allegedly sharing its customers’ medical and healthcare information with advertisers and tech giants, like Meta and Snap, as well as for misleading consumers about its privacy practices.
The lawsuit is the federal consumer watchdog’s latest crackdown in recent years on healthcare companies that share sensitive information with outside companies without their customers’ knowledge. Hims & Hers, now a publicly traded company, provides prescription medication for sexual wellness, mental health conditions, weight loss, and other issues, and as such handles a large amount of sensitive patient data.
Companies typically try to learn more about their customers by installing code on their websites in order to share users’ information with advertisers, like Meta and Snap, which then use the data to provide information about who is visiting their websites and when.
In its complaint filed in a California federal court, the FTC alleged that Hims & Hers placed pixel-sized trackers provided by Meta, Snap, and other tech and advertising giants, including Microsoft, Pinterest, Reddit, and X. These trackers, the FTC said, “captured and shared users’ health information,” contrary to Hims & Hers’ own privacy policy. The FTC alleges the company also used Meta’s tools to track users’ clicks and other actions that users took on its website.
The FTC also accused Hims & Hers of deceptive billing, and drawing up policies that allegedly made it difficult for customers to cancel, in violation of federal consumer protection laws.
Hims & Hers did not explicitly deny the FTC’s claims in a statement on its website. The company claimed its privacy policy “makes clear” that users “may choose how their data is used,” and said it is “confident” in its position. Hims & Hers said it plans to defend against the FTC’s allegations.
The FTC has previously taken action against telehealth startup Cerebral, alcohol recovery provider Monument, as well as data giant GoodRx and therapy provider BetterHelp. These companies were similarly accused of sharing patients’ sensitive data through their websites to third-party tech giants and advertisers.
The use of pixel-sized trackers has previously revealed how people’s sensitive data gets shared with the companies who provide the code, highlighting how misconfigurations can result in unwanted data collection.
In 2024, TechCrunch found that the U.S. Postal Service was sharing logged-in users’ home addresses with Meta, LinkedIn, and Snap by using their pixel tracking code. The USPS removed the code soon after.
Topics
cybersecurity, Federal Trade Commission, Hims & Hers, Privacy, Security
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Zack Whittaker
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He can be reached via encrypted message at zackwhittaker.1337 on Signal. You can also contact him by email, or to verify outreach, at zack.whittaker@techcrunch.com.
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CareCloud begins to notify hundreds of thousands after hackers stole medical records
1:13 PM PDT · July 30, 2026
Hundreds of thousands of people are receiving letters notifying them that their medical records were stolen in a cyberattack at U.S. health tech giant CareCloud earlier this year, as new details about the data breach come to light.
The company has said little about the breach since March, when it first admitted that hackers had raided one of its six stores of patient data. New disclosures seen by TechCrunch offer the clearest picture of the breach so far, including that nearly 350,000 people have been affected so far.
The New Jersey-based CareCloud stores patient records for more than 45,000 providers across the U.S., including doctors’ offices, hospitals, and other medical practices. As such, the company handles a large amount of sensitive medical and billing data on millions of healthcare patients across the country.
According to a data breach notice filed with California’s attorney general’s office this week, CareCloud said hackers had access to one of its electronic health record data stores for at least six days, between March 10 and March 16. The company said a hacker “claimed to have exfiltrated data from databases.” The company did not say how the hackers made the claim, but it’s not uncommon for hackers to share samples of stolen data with victims alongside a ransom demand to prevent it from being published online.
TechCrunch is unaware of any ransomware or extortion group publicly taking credit for the data breach at CareCloud.
The notice said little about the hack beyond its initial March 27 disclosure to regulators, but confirmed TechCrunch’s earlier report that the hackers broke into the company’s data storage hosted on Amazon Web Services.
TechCrunch has learned that the data breach affects at least 345,000 people across the United States, according to listings with several attorneys general, including those in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Texas. TechCrunch has also obtained CareCloud’s disclosure filed with Maine’s attorney general.
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The number of affected people is likely to rise as more disclosures are filed with state authorities.
The notices confirm that CareCloud notified authorities that the stolen data included people’s names, postal addresses, and Social Security numbers, as well as government-issued identification numbers, such as passports and driver’s licenses. The notices also say that the stolen data included financial information, such as bank account information and payment card numbers, alongside a wealth of medical and health-related information.
CareCloud chief executive Stephen Snyder did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment or to questions about the incident.
The cyberattack targeting CareCloud is the latest in a series of breaches targeting healthcare providers this year, including one at healthcare revenue tech giant TriZetto that affected 3.4 million people, and a month-long breach at New York’s public health provider NYC Health + Hospitals, in which hackers stole 1.8 million people’s health data and thousands of employees’ fingerprint scans.
Last week, U.K.-based tech provider Craneware, which provides accounting and billing software to thousands of U.S. healthcare providers, confirmed hackers stole a “significant volume” of its customers’ data from its servers, raising concerns about a breach involving patient data.
Do you know more about CareCloud’s data breach? Do you work at CareCloud and know about its security practices? Contact this reporter via encrypted message at zackwhittaker.1337 on Signal.
Topics
Biotech & Health, carecloud, cyberattack, cybersecurity, data breach, electronic health records, healthcare, Security
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Zack Whittaker
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Zack Whittaker is the security editor at TechCrunch. He also authors the weekly cybersecurity newsletter, this week in security.
He can be reached via encrypted message at zackwhittaker.1337 on Signal. You can also contact him by email, or to verify outreach, at zack.whittaker@techcrunch.com.
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Nscale buys Anyscale as it seeks to own more of the AI compute stack
8:19 AM PDT · July 30, 2026
In a bid to capture more of its customers’ AI spending, British AI neocloud Nscale is buying software startup Anyscale, which helps companies scale their AI workloads across data centers and servers.
Nscale is paying $1.65 billion for Anyscale, Bloomberg reported, citing an anonymous source.
Founded by the same team that built the open source Project Ray distributed programming Python framework, Anyscale started by building a platform that allowed people to run projects that needed large amounts of computing power.
But after the launch of GPT-3 in 2022 brought AI into the spotlight, the company pivoted to offer scaling services for serving and training large language models, data curation, inferencing, reinforcement learning, and other tasks. The company’s platform is built around Ray, offering developer tools, observability, and orchestration.
A deal to buy Anyscale would fall neatly into Nscale’s focus on building vertically to serve compute needs. The neocloud has set up business lines across energy, data centers, orchestration software, and now, with Anyscale, it will also offer workload management and scaling.
“Together, Anyscale and Nscale can co-design the software layer and infrastructure beneath it, something that neither company could do as effectively by optimizing its layer alone,” Anyscale said in a statement.
Nscale this March raised $2 billion in a Series C round that saw it valued at $14.6 billion. Its investors include Nvidia, Nokia, Blue Owl, Dell, and Norwegian industrial giant Aker. The neocloud has been busy putting that money, as well as various debt raises, to work, securing compute and data center partnerships with the likes of Microsoft, British Telecom, and Nordcraft.
Anyscale, which was valued at $1.38 billion in a 2022 Series C round, said its revenue increased by 70% in its most recent quarter, compared to the previous sequential quarter.
Nscale said Anyscale will continue to operate under its own branding and serve its existing customers. The startup’s approximately 200 employees are all joining Nscale.
Topics
AI, anyscale, data center infrastructure, Mergers and Acquisitions, nscale
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Winamp aims for a comeback with a new music player powered by Deezer
2:02 PM PDT · July 29, 2026
Long before Spotify, Winamp was the music player of choice for millions of music fans. Now, the nostalgic brand is preparing for yet another comeback.
Winamp and Deezer announced a partnership on Wednesday that will see Deezer power Winamp’s upcoming premium music subscription service. Under the agreement, Winamp will leverage Deezer’s white-label technology and global licensed music catalog while maintaining its own branding and user experience.
The partnership is part of a larger relaunch centered around the next-generation Winamp Player, scheduled to arrive in the first half of 2027. According to the companies, the new player is designed to “reinvent the music player for the streaming era” by combining premium music streaming with users’ local music libraries, internet radio stations, podcasts, personal cloud-based collections, and other audio sources within a single app.
While a lot of the details remain under wraps, Winamp promises an emphasis on personalization through a customizable interface, social features, and ways to discover, organize, and enjoy music. The company asserts that its subscription service will “deliver a fundamentally different experience from today’s traditional digital streaming platforms.”
Though loyal Winamp users who grew up during the MP3 boom are likely to be excited by this news, it’s unclear whether many people will choose to pay for yet another music subscription. The streaming market is already saturated with giants like Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Music. However, Winamp touts that its free desktop player is actively used by more than 40 million users.
The announcement also reflects a resurgence of retro tech. Cassette tapes, MP3 players, and even iPods have all seen renewed interest recently as users embrace more nostalgic ways to experience music. Winamp is betting that its music player can make a comeback with modern streaming built in.
While Winamp has undergone several revamps over the years, this may be its most deliberate return to its core audience. During the web3 boom, it explored NFT integration, enabling users to link music-related NFTs to their player. Previous plans included transforming Winamp into a cross-platform mobile audio app. More recently, the company has pivoted toward supporting creators, launching tools for artists, including monetization, fan engagement, and music distribution services.
Topics
Apps, Apps, Deezer, Media & Entertainment, streaming, Winamp
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Lauren Forristal
Lauren covers media, streaming, apps and platforms at TechCrunch.
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