Two hospital networks in Louisiana are being hauled to court in a pair of class-action lawsuits that accuses the hospitals of deploying Meta Pixel ad-tracker code and sharing sensitive medical data with Facebook in violation of the US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

LCMC Health Systems and Willis-Knighton Health Systems are being accused of deploying the Meta Pixel code on their sites, which shared information with Facebook — including medical conditions, prescriptions, doctors' names, and prior appointment history — so patients could be targeted for advertising, according to the law firm behind the action, Herman Herman & Katz.

"We are learning more and more about this shocking breach of trust as our investigation continues," Herman Herman & Katz partner Stephen Herman said in a statement about the data privacy lawsuits. "This was a gross invasion of privacy that went on for years."