Healthcare.gov Sends Personal Data To Over a Dozen Tracking Websites

An anonymous reader tips an Associated Press report saying that Healthcare.gov is sending users' personal data to private companies. The information involved is typical ad-related analytic data: "...it can include age, income, ZIP code, whether a person smokes, and if a person is pregnant. It can include a computer's Internet address, which can identify a person's name or address when combined with other information collected by sophisticated online marketing or advertising firms." The Electronic Frontier Foundation confirmed the report, saying that data is being sent from Healthcare.gov to at least 14 third-party domains.

The EFF says, "Sending such personal information raises significant privacy concerns. A company like Doubleclick, for example, could match up the personal data provided by healthcare.gov with an already extensive trove of information about what you read online and what your buying preferences are to create an extremely detailed profile of exactly who you are and what your interests are. It could do all this based on a tracking cookie that it sets which would be the same across any site you visit. Based on this data, Doubleclick could start showing you smoking ads or infer your risk of cancer based on where you live, how old you are and your status as a smoker. Doubleclick might start to show you ads related to pregnancy, which could have embarrassing and potentially dangerous consequences such as when Target notified a woman's family that she was pregnant before she even told them. "

Comments

Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

The only purpose it serves is to completely erase all trust. Who gets fired?

Wow... Just "no".

[pla]

In what universe does a government website selling personal info to advertisers count as even remotely fucking acceptable???

This doesn't "raise significant privacy concerns", it sends a great big middle finger to the American public from its own elected officials. I don't care about the "potential" for misuse - I care that someone even considered the possibility of using healthcare.gov to siphon off PII.

Uncle Sam needs to retire.

Re:Wow... Just "no".

[gstoddart]

In what universe does a government website selling personal info to advertisers count as even remotely fucking acceptable???

One in which some asshole has decided it needs to run for a profit, or on a cost recovery basis ... and with zero regard for patient confidentiality.

I agree with you, and any sane country with privacy laws would be appalled -- and you'd expect this to violate some HIPAA laws.

Essentially this demonstrates the problems with analytics -- is some asshole you don't have anything to do with gets to know everything you do and everything about you.

That's utterly insane, and if it isn't, it should be illegal.

But somehow it seems that ensuring the profits of corporations is more important than privacy and the act of restricting what corporations do is unthinkable to some.

Re:Wow... Just "no".

[DarkOx]

Why are you surprised the entire 'Affordable' care is really just a pile of giveaways to certain monied interests.

I mean come on the left the private insurance industry in place, while all but forcing the public to buy their product. The left them with the ability to set rates. The only real encouragement for them not gouge, is fear of political back lash AND essentially a government grantee that if they do somehow lose money they will be make whole.

There essentially no controls on the medical tort industry in it.
Nothing was done manage increasing drug costs
The medial device tax, the like one thing that industry might not like, is suspended.
Piles of money were spent hiring the incompetent to build the exchange.

The entire thing is theft all the way up and down.

Re: Wow... Just "no".

[gstoddart]

In this case, that asshole is a Democrat.

You're absolutely correct:

The Obama administration says HealthCare.gov's connections to data firms were intended to help improve the consumer experience. Officials said outside firms are barred from using the data to further their own business interests.

Just fucking wow.

The stupidity inherent in this choice is beyond belief.

Re: Wow... Just "no".

[ganjadude]

Not really, most of the ACA was recycled Republican ideas,

People keep saying this, but its simply not true, unless you try and say that what a republican said was ok for the state to do is also ok for the fed to do, which is exactly the opposite of the truth. to some people, the 10th amendment still matters

Re:Who expected differently?

[Tailhook]

Because Dems don't look to their angry leftist commentators to be told how to think?

Sharpton's regular broadcast just started as I read your bullshit. I listen to his hate mongering on WVON out of Chicago. You have no idea what you're talking about.

The callers are the best part. They've all been filled with hate from birth and many of them want violence.