Monument (company)
| Monument | |
| Company type | Private |
| Industry | Telemedicine |
| Founded | 2020 New York City |
| Founder | Mike Russell |
| Headquarters | New York City |
Area served | United States |
Key people |
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| Services |
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| Website | joinmonument |
Monument Inc. is a telemedicine company that provides online treatment for alcohol use disorder. It offers therapy and physician appointments as well as support groups entirely through video calls. Monument was founded in New York City in 2020 by Mike Russell. By 2023, it had at least 100,000 users registered.
History[edit]
Entrepreneur Mike Russell started Monument after selling his third startup, Paintzen, when he realized that he was a binge drinker and struggling with alcohol use disorder. Monument received $7.5 million in seed funding in 2019 before officially launching in early 2020.[1]
Monument acquired Tempest, an online platform for alcohol recovery care, in 2022.[2]
In March 2023, Monument announced that they had leaked sensitive user data to companies like Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Pinterest through the use of their website trackers. In the same announcement, Monument said they removed all usage of website trackers.[2][3]
In April 2024, Monument was banned by the Federal Trade Commission from disclosing users' health information to third-parties for advertising purposes and fined $2.5 million for violating the Opioid Addiction Recovery Fraud Prevention Act of 2018.[4][5]
References[edit]
- ^ Shieber, Jonathan (2020-05-11). "'People are in the fights of their lives' with alcohol use disorders, and Monument wants to help". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 2020-05-11. Retrieved 2024-01-13.
- ^ a b Whittaker, Zack (2023-04-04). "Alcohol recovery startups Monument and Tempest shared patients' private data with advertisers". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 2023-04-07. Retrieved 2024-01-13.
- ^ Roth, Emma (2023-04-04). "These alcohol counseling companies leaked patient data to advertisers for years". The Verge. Archived from the original on 2023-04-04. Retrieved 2024-01-13.
- ^ Palmer, Katie (2024-04-19). "FTC Cracks Down on Telehealth Addiction Service Monument for Sharing Health Data". The Markup. Archived from the original on 2024-04-19. Retrieved 2024-04-20.
- ^ "Alcohol Addiction Treatment Firm will be Banned from Disclosing Health Data for Advertising to Settle FTC Charges that It Shared Data Without Consent". Federal Trade Commission. 2024-04-11. Archived from the original on 2024-04-11. Retrieved 2024-04-20.