Pharmatrak Under Fire in Web Data-Sharing Suits
Pharmatrak, a Boston-based online information aggregator that provides data to some of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, was sued in a Manhattan federal court last week, according to wire service reports.
According to the wires, Robert Barring of Irvine, CA filed the complaint, which alleges the company violates the Electronics Communications Privacy Act through its use of “cookies,” which track site visitor browsing information and can link it back to a given computer.
One of the requests allegedly made in the suit is that Pharmatrak destroy all information gathered from site visitors. At least one drug company, Pfizer Inc., is alleged to have been named in the suit as well.
The suit is the second filed against Pharmatrak: According to reports a similar complaint had been filed in Boston earlier last week as well.
On its Web site, Pharmatrak has posted a privacy policy. The company’s policy spells out its procedure for collection of data through cookies, as well as the fact that it provides aggregated data to its clients in the pharmaceutical industry. The policy goes on to say that the company does not collect private or personally identifiable information from individuals without their explicit authorization.
Its cookies, according to the policy, expire after three months, and the information it relays back to its Web server includes pages requested; the Internet Protocol address of the visitor’s computer (which, the policy asserts, cannot be used to personally identify a visitor); the browser software and operating system a visitor is using, and the date and time a page is accessed.
Neither Barring nor representatives from Pharmatrak were available for comment at deadline.
