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Navigating Meta's New Privacy Rules for Health & Wellness Brands
Understand Meta's new privacy rules for health & wellness brands and learn how to navigate website data restrictions to stay compliant and maintain your ad strategy.
Noah King
Jan 1, 2025
There’s a lot of confusion about Meta's new privacy rules for health & wellness brands. Let me clarify: This isn’t about your ads—it’s about your website data. Let's dig into what's really happening.
-- What’s Changing?
Starting January 2025, Meta’s new rules focus on the data flowing from your website to your pixel or server-side data connection.
This policy lives in the Events Manager, not the Ads Manager - it impacts website data, not ads or ad campaigns directly.
Websites categorized as "Health & Wellness Condition" may face data restrictions or event blocking.
-- Who’s Affected?
▶️ Websites "associated with a specific medical condition"
▶️ Websites "associated with a specific health status"
▶️ Websites "associated with relationships between patients and providers"
Example: A site selling supplements that treat rosacea may send ViewContent event URL data (e.g., "myvitamins . com/rosacea-pills") that Meta interprets as health-sensitive.
Regulators see this as a potential privacy violation, implying that the site has disclosed the site visitors condition information to Meta, without permission.
-- How to Check Your Status
Meta has already started categorizing domains. Here’s how to check yours.
▶️ Go to your Pixel or Dataset in Meta Events Manager.
▶️ Navigate to Settings > Manage Data Source Categories.
▶️ Look for a flag like “Health & Wellness Condition”.
If flagged, you can request a review if you believe your site has been miscategorized.
-- What is Impacted:
▶️ Level 1: Stripped URL Data
Meta removes specific event URL details
(example: "myvitamins . com/rosacea-pills" becomes "myvitamins . com").
▶️ Level 2: Mid-Funnel Event Blocking
Meta blocks mid and lower funnel events. Optimization for events beyond traffic and awareness may be blocked.
▶️ Level 3: Full Event Blocking
Applies to stricter regions (e.g., Europe under GDPR). All events may stop flowing entirely.
-- Summary
This policy isn’t just a small tweak—it’s a significant shift for health related advertisers. Ignoring these changes could disrupt your ad strategy, but with preparation, you can stay ahead.
Know someone who needs help navigating this? Comment or share this post to help correct the misinformation that has been circulating.