Babylon Health has self-reported itself to the Information Commissioner’s Office after a software error meant a ‘small number’ of patients were able to view other patients’ video consultations.
The private GP consultation provider, which also offers the GP at Hand NHS service, said the error was discovered by a clinician an hour before a patient tweeted about the problem, and the video access was switched off within two hours.
It said it knows it was ‘a very small group of people’ who were affected because the error happened within a new feature that had not previously been available, which it said led to the error.
@babylonhealth Why have I got access to other patients video consultations through your app? This is a massive data breach. Over 50 video recordings are on this list! pic.twitter.com/hgkxiNWxZk
— Rory G (@Rory_Glover) June 9, 2020
In a statement, a Babylon spokesperson, said: ‘On the afternoon of Tuesday 9th June we identified and resolved an issue within two hours whereby one patient accessed the introduction of another patient’s consultation recording. Our investigation showed that two other patients, who had booked and had appointments today, were incorrectly presented with, but did not view, recordings of other patients’ consultations through a subsection of the user’s profile within the Babylon App.
‘This was the result of a software error rather than a malicious attack. The problem was identified and resolved quickly. Of course we take any security issue, however small, very seriously and have contacted the patients affected to update, apologise to and support where required.
‘We proactively notified the Information Commissioner’s Office and will share all the necessary information around this.
‘Affected users were in the UK only and this did not impact our international operations.’
Babylon Health offers private GP consultations via its Babylon App and NHS services through GP at Hand, with the error having affected the Babylon app.
