Cerebral, Inc., $7,000,000
Online mental-health service Cerebral disclosed sensitive patient information to third parties including LinkedIn, Snapchat, and TikTok and used dark patterns to make canceling subscriptions difficult.
Case identifiers
- Respondent
- Cerebral, Inc.
- Agency
- Federal Trade Commission
- Announced
- 2024-04-15
- Monetary relief
- $7,000,000
- Case number
- FTC File No. 232-3058
- Statutes cited
- FTC Act § 5 · Opioid Addiction Recovery Fraud Prevention Act
Key facts
- 1
Cerebral shared mental-health information including IP address, responses to mental-health questionnaires, diagnoses, and prescriptions with advertising platforms.
- 2
Data from ~3.2 million patients was disclosed to third parties between 2019 and 2023.
- 3
Used confusing sign-up flows and deceptive cancellation processes that made subscriptions hard to exit.
- 4
$5.1 million refund component plus $2 million civil penalty.
What the order requires
Injunctive terms imposed by the Federal Trade Commission. These bind Cerebral, Inc.'s data practices going forward.
- Permanent restriction on sharing health information with third parties for advertising.
- Required deletion of health information already disclosed.
- Implementation of data minimization and consumer consent practices.
- Simple one-click subscription cancellation.
Primary sources
Read the original government documents. These are the authoritative records, everything on this page is derived from them.
- Federal Trade Commission press releasehttps://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/04/proposed-ftc-order-will-prohibit-telehealth-firm-cerebral-using-or-disclosing-sensitive-data
Exercise your rights now
Generate a deletion request for $5
The FTC order binds Cerebral, Inc.'s future practices, but doesn't automatically delete your existing data. State privacy law (CCPA, CPA, TDPSA, VCDPA) gives you that right. OfflistMe generates a compliant deletion email pre-addressed to Cerebral, Inc.'s registered privacy contact.
Start for $5 →FAQ
What did the FTC charge Cerebral, Inc. with?+
Online mental-health service Cerebral disclosed sensitive patient information to third parties including LinkedIn, Snapchat, and TikTok and used dark patterns to make canceling subscriptions difficult. The Federal Trade Commission cited FTC Act § 5, Opioid Addiction Recovery Fraud Prevention Act.
How much did Cerebral, Inc. pay?+
Cerebral, Inc. paid $7,000,000 in monetary relief, announced on 2024-04-15. The settlement also imposed injunctive terms (see below).
Does the Cerebral, Inc. settlement mean my data has been deleted?+
The order requires Cerebral, Inc. to delete certain categories of consumer data (see injunctive terms). Individual consumers should still exercise state-law deletion rights (CCPA, CPA, TDPSA) to confirm deletion from any remaining successor databases.
How can I read the original FTC order?+
The Federal Trade Commission press release is available at https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/04/proposed-ftc-order-will-prohibit-telehealth-firm-cerebral-using-or-disclosing-sensitive-data. The case / matter number is FTC File No. 232-3058.