Protecting Health Context

Protecting Health Context in Audience Targeting

Freshpaint enables healthcare marketers to activate high-performing ad campaigns while maintaining strict privacy and compliance standards. This includes protecting any health-related context or PHI from being shared with advertising platforms.

This guide walks through how to:

1. Understand what health context means in ad targeting

2. Use alias naming safely

3. Avoid policy violations

4. Ensure creative and campaign compliance

1. Understand What “Health Context” Means

Health context refers to any identifier, term, or reference that implies a user’s health condition, treatment, or care. This includes direct PHI like diagnosis codes or indirect context such as:

• “diabetes_patients_Q3”

• “booked_colonoscopy”

• “cancer_reminder_list”

Sharing any of the above through an ad platform — even in names — may expose you to HIPAA violations or violate platform policies.

2. Use Alias Naming to Stay Compliant

When importing or creating an audience, Freshpaint gives you the ability to set an Alias — this is the only field that gets shared with ad platforms like Meta or Google Ads.

We will automatically generate a unique three-word alias for you; this alias is the only name shared with ad platforms like Meta or Google Ads. It helps ensure privacy while enabling seamless syncing to destinations.

You’ll also set a Name, Description, and Labels, which stay inside Freshpaint and are not shared externally.

Only the alias is sent to ad platforms.

Avoid using any language that could imply health conditions, procedures, or patient information.

✅ Examples of safe alias names:

• cloud-pencil-drum

• green-echo-bottle

• north-star-radio

❌ Avoid editing aliases to include:

• asthma_followup_group

• colonoscopy_leads_Q3

• cancer_retarget_list

3. Avoid Platform Policy Violations

Ad platforms like Google and Meta prohibit targeting users based on sensitive health information. Even naming your audience improperly could trigger enforcement.

Google’s Customer Match policy: “Do not upload lists that contain or imply sensitive information, including health conditions.”

Read Google’s policy →

4. Exclude Original Audience in Lookalikes

When building Lookalike or Similar audiences:

• Always exclude the seed audience from your campaign targeting

• This ensures you're reaching net-new users, not just retargeting the same group

For integrations that might not automatically exclude the initial audience, we will warn you to manually exclude the audience.

💬 Need Help?

Not sure if your audience name is compliant? Our team is happy to advise.

📩 Reach us at [email protected]