This article was co-published with The Markup, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates how powerful institutions are using technology to change our society. Sign up for its newsletters here.
Websites for mental health crisis resources across the country — which promise anonymity for visitors, many of whom are at a desperate moment in their lives — have been quietly sending sensitive visitor data to Facebook, The Markup has found.
Dozens of websites tied to the national mental health crisis 988 hotline, which launched last summer, transmit the data through a tool called the Meta Pixel, according to testing conducted by The Markup. That data often included signals to Facebook when visitors attempted to dial for mental health emergencies by tapping on dedicated call buttons on the websites.
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