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Buried In the Healthcare.gov Source: "No Expectation of Privacy"

Posted by timothy on from the just-initial-here-and-here-and-here-and-here dept.

realized writes "The Obamacare website Healthcare.gov has a hidden terms of service that is not shown to people when they sign up. The hidden terms, only viewable if you 'view source' on the site, says that the user has 'no reasonable expectation of privacy regarding any communication or data transiting or stored on this information system.' Sadly, the taxpayer-funded website still does not work for most people, so it's hard to confirm – though when it's fixed in two months, we should finally be able to see it." Note: As the article points out, that phrasing is "not visible to users and obviously not intended as part of the terms and conditions." So users shouldn't worry that they've actually, accidentally agreed to any terms more onerous than the ones they can read on the signup page, but it's an interesting inclusion. What's the last EULA you read thoroughly?

4 of 365 comments (clear)

  1. Cut & Paste by wherley · · Score: 5, Informative

    This is boilerplate language from many Federal sites and would seem to be a template cut/paste thing. Examples:

    https://logonsm.faa.gov/dotrso/certoptional/myfaa/

    https://ampedc1.cms.gov/amserver/UI/Login

    http://hsesacpt21.smdi.com/jsso/SSOLogin

    https://fedstar.phmsa.dot.gov/FedSTAR/Default.aspx

    etc.

  2. Its *not* $634M by dieswaytoofast · · Score: 5, Informative

    Even the source link points out that its not $634M (except, since it does so in a "Fair and Balanced" way, you can't really tell)
    You can either actually read the article in gory detail, or better yet, go read this breakdown of the numbers.
    TL;DR --> its around $55.7M (which is still a lot, but is - decidedly - not $634M)

  3. Re:How do we get Congress to sign up? by SJHillman · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's kind of misleading to say "nobody else is". I know plenty of people who have already had their plans canceled or changed as a direct result of Obamacare; many more have already been warned of sharp premium increases by their insurance company due to Obamacare requirements, which may force some people to cancel plans they can no longer afford.

  4. Re:How do we get Congress to sign up? by Bartles · · Score: 4, Informative

    I buy excellent individual insurance now. My application to enroll on the exchange was just rejected, and I was told I need to enroll in medicaid, because my income is too low at 174% of the poverty line. I just got some quotes for insurance purchased off the exchange and my cost will increas 300%-500%, making buying insurance impossible for me to afford. So everyone is not going to be paying taxes into that. In fact I just got moved from the taxpayer to the dependent category. This law will be a disaster.