Walmart’s Rx Privacy Slip-Up

Consumers’ pharmacy-related data is, by nature, very private, and it appears that Walmart inadvertently let others get a peek at some of that sensitive information.

The discount retail giant revealed this week, reports Reuters, that, last month, a coding error may have allowed the prescription history and other basic information of a few thousand online Walmart pharmacy customers in the U.S. to be visible to others for a period of four days.

“We had a software coding error for a 72-hour period from Feb. 15 to 18 that affected a limited group of online pharmacy customers,” company spokesman Dan Toporek told the outlet. “We moved quickly to fix the issue once it was discovered.”

While Toporek made it clear that, during the inadvertent breach period, third-party users did not have access to other personal data, such as Social Security numbers or full credit or debit card or health insurance information, it is possible that they could have viewed details like names, addresses, dates of birth and prescription history.

Furthermore, Toporek clarified to Reuters that the mistake — which occurred during a server migration and affected fewer than 5,000 users — was not the work of hackers.

In response to the issue, shares the outlet, Walmart is making direct contact with customers that may have been impacted by the data exposure and offering them identity protection services, though Toporek remarked that the retailer does not have “reason to believe the information was inappropriately used by someone else.”

The Reuters story additionally notes that, according to an estimate by Evercore ISI, Walmart — which is among the largest drugstores in the U.S. — did approximately $19 billion in revenue last year.