Jane Doe v. Torrance Memorial Medical Center

I. BACKGROUND

On January 1, 2023, Plaintiff Jane Doe filed a class action lawsuit in California Superior Court on behalf of herself and all other similarly situated California citizens who had their highly sensitive personal information disclosed to Facebook without their knowledge or consent. See Dkt. 1-1, Ex. A at 3 (Compl.). Doe alleges that Torrance promises patients and prospective patients that it will not disclose their Health Information for marketing purposes without their written authorization, but contrary to these assurances, Torrance does not “follow the law prohibiting such disclosures.” Id. ¶ 2. Doe alleges that since at least 2017, Torrance has disclosed protected health information to Facebook and other third parties without patients’ knowledge authorization, or consent. Id. ¶ 3. Torrance has deployed “various digital marketing and automatic rerouting tools embedded on its websites that purposefully and intentionally redirect personal health information to Facebook, who exploits that information for advertising purposes.” Id. ¶ 4. On February 17, 2023, Torrance removed the case pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1442(a)(1), the federal officer removal statute. See…