Website Trackers and Privacy Liability: What Every Business Needs to Know

How third-party scripts and cookies can quietly put your organization at legal risk—and why tracker reviews are essential.

Your website might be quietly collecting more than just leads.

In today’s digital ecosystem, most businesses rely on website trackers—like cookies, pixels, and embedded scripts—to measure traffic, run ads, and personalize the user experience. But what many companies don’t realize is that these tools, especially when unmanaged, can create significant legal and regulatory risk.

From Meta pixels to Google Analytics and session replay scripts, third-party trackers are often embedded without a clear understanding of what data is collected, where it’s sent, or whether it aligns with privacy regulations like the GDPR, CCPA, or HIPAA.

The Legal Risk Behind the Code

1. Regulatory Compliance:
Privacy laws increasingly require transparency and consent regarding the data collected from website visitors. A hidden or non-compliant tracker can lead to regulatory action—particularly if it transmits personal, financial, or health-related information to unauthorized third parties.

2. Third-Party Liability:
Even if your business isn’t directly collecting sensitive data, you can be held responsible if your website allows a third-party service to do so without proper disclosure or safeguards. Recent lawsuits and FTC actions have targeted companies whose ad tools or analytics plugins collected data improperly.

3. HIPAA and Sector-Specific Exposure:
Healthcare, finance, and education sectors face heightened risk. In 2023, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued clear guidance that using tracking technologies on websites serving healthcare clients—without proper safeguards—may constitute a HIPAA violation.

A Real Example: The Meta Pixel Fallout

In 2022 and 2023, multiple hospitals and healthcare providers were hit with lawsuits after it was discovered they had installed the Meta (Facebook) Pixel on their appointment scheduling pages. This tracker quietly transmitted patient data—such as names, IP addresses, and details about medical conditions—to Meta without proper authorization or patient consent.

Some health systems paid multi-million-dollar settlements. Others became the focus of federal investigations. In every case, the issue wasn’t intentional misuse—it was a lack of visibility into what trackers were doing behind the scenes.

Insurance Companies Are Taking Note

Cyber insurers have begun scrutinizing how businesses manage web tracking technologies. Some now require tracker audits as part of their application process—or during underwriting reviews—to assess a company’s privacy and data governance posture.

Insurers are increasingly concerned that unmanaged trackers could trigger regulatory investigations or class-action lawsuits, which often result in expensive claims. A failure to monitor this exposure could jeopardize coverage—or lead to higher premiums and exclusions.

The Solution: Conduct Regular Tracker Reviews

Tracker reviews are structured audits of all third-party scripts, cookies, and tracking technologies in use across your website or web apps. These reviews help you:

• Identify all external data flows from your site

• Classify data types being captured (e.g., IP addresses, behavioral data, health info)

• Determine whether proper disclosures and consents are in place

• Align your practices with industry-specific regulations (GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA, GLBA, etc.)

Best practices include:

• Conducting reviews quarterly or whenever adding new website functionality

• Maintaining a living inventory of trackers and embedded tools

• Collaborating across marketing, IT, legal, and compliance teams

• Using tag management platforms and monitoring tools that offer greater visibility and control

  

Don’t Wait for a Regulator—or a Plaintiff—to Find It for You

Most liability from website trackers isn’t the result of malicious behavior. It’s accidental. It comes from a gap between the people deploying tools (often marketing) and those managing risk (legal and IT). That’s where Bawn comes in.

At Bawn, we help businesses conduct comprehensive tracker reviews as part of our liability risk reduction approach. We identify what’s really happening under the hood, help close exposure gaps, and ensure your digital footprint doesn’t come back to haunt you.

Ready to get visibility into your website’s hidden liabilities?
Let’s start with a quick assessment.

Schedule Your Tracker Risk Review →