This week, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that large portions of a class action lawsuit can proceed against Facebook from users who claim their medical privacy was violated.

The plaintiffs in the case claim that at least 664 hospital systems or providers in the US were sending their private data to Facebook without their knowing. The plaintiffs also say that Facebook should’ve been aware that its controversial Pixel tracking tool was gathering this sensitive information. For its part, Facebook argued that it had no intention of receiving this data and that web developers were at fault. However, the judge in the case was unmoved, and ruled that the suit could proceed. A lawyer representing the class action suit was also quick to poke holes in Facebook’s logic, noting that the burden was on the social media giant to prove its case.

“One way to prove it would be to show specific warnings to health care providers saying ‘we don’t want this data, stop sending it to us,’” class attorney Jay Barnes said.“They’ve been on notice for a long time that they’re collecting this information without authorization.”

There’s no doubt that this is one of the most serious legal issues Facebook is currently facing, and it could dramatically hurt the company’s bottom line if it can’t track users around the web the way it wants. For now, these users have scored an impressive victory for their privacy in court.

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