- Telehealth startup Babylon Health just suffered a data breach that mistakenly sent videos of patients' private consultations with doctors to other patients.
- The breach was brought to Babylon Health's attention after a patient tweeted a screenshot showing he had access to dozens of other people's consultation videos. The company said the breach was caused by a "software error" that has since been fixed.
- Babylon Health is one of several telemedicine startups that have seen an influx of users amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
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After his appointment with a doctor through the telehealth app Babylon Health, Rory Glover noticed something odd: dozens of video recordings of other patients' consultations were appearing in his app.
"Why have I got access to other patients video consultations through your app?" Glover asked in a tweet, tagging the $2 billion startup. "This is a massive data breach."
—Rory G (@Rory_Glover) June 9, 2020
Babylon Health did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment. However, the company told BBC Tuesday that it suffered a data breach resulting from a "software error."
The firm added that it has already notified affected customers and patched the error that resulted in the breach. The only users affected were UK residents, it said.
"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," a company spokesperson told BBC.
Babylon Health is one of several telemedicine startups that have seen massive growth amid the COVID-19 pandemic, as health providers turn to remote medicine to reduce the number of people crowding hospitals and clinics.
The UK-based startup is now pushing into the US market, leading a $30 million investment round in US health startup Higi last month.