Walgreens Mobile App Leaks Prescription Data
Summary
Popular pharmacy chain Walgreens is warning that a bug in its official mobile app may have exposed sensitive data, including customers’ full names and information on prescriptions for medications they are taking. The mobile messaging feature is a service for registered customers to receive SMS alerts for prescription refill notifications, deals and coupons. While Walgreens did not detail the technical glitch, it said that the internal application error enabled certain personal messages, stored in a database, to be viewed by other customers who were using the mobile app. The company interacts with approximately 8 million customers in its stores and online each day, and filled 1.2 billion prescriptions on a 30-day adjusted basis in fiscal 2019, according to its website. In 2013, the company was hit with a $1.4 million penalty for a data breach after a pharmacist in a Walgreens store in Indianapolis inappropriately viewed and shared a woman’s prescription history.