The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that a federal court in Washington, DC, has entered a settlement that prohibits alcohol addiction treatment company Monument Inc. from misrepresenting its data privacy practices and disclosing its customers’ health information to third parties for advertising purposes, and also requires the company to take several measures to safeguard its customers’ personal information. The court also entered a $2.5 million civil penalty judgment against Monument, which is suspended due to the company’s inability to pay. A civil complaint filed today alleges that Monument violated the Federal Trade Commission Act and the Opioid Addiction Recovery Fraud Prevention Act of 2018 by misrepresenting on its alcohol addiction treatment website and elsewhere that it would not disclose its customers’ health information without their express consent and by failing to employ reasonable measures to protect its customers’ data. The complaint alleges that such failures led Monument to disclose thousands of users’ health information to third parties for advertising or other purposes.
