Covered California Send Personal Health Data to LinkedIn

From You take the apodaca and Colin LeherCalmness

This story was originally published by CalmattersS Register about their ballots.

The website, which allows Californians to shop for health insurance under the Act on Accessible Care Act, Coverca.com, sends sensitive data to LinkedIn, revealed forensic tests from Calmatters.

As the visitors completed the forms on the website, the trackers on the same pages told LinkedIn their answers to questions about whether they were blind, pregnant or using a large number of medicines released on a prescription. Trackers also monitored whether visitors said they were a transgender or possible victims of domestic violence. (S)See data on our GitHub Repo.)

California covered, the organization that manages the website removed the trackers such as Calmatters and the mark reported this article. The organization said they were removed “due to the transition of the marketing agency in early April.

In a statement, Kelly Dono, a spokesman for the agency, confirmed that the data were sent to LinkedIn as part of an advertising campaign. As she was informed of tracking, “all the active advertising markers on our website were excluded from an abundance of caution, she added.”

“The covered California initiates an overview of our websites and security security protocols to ensure that no analysis tools can share sensitive information about users,” said Donovie, adding that they will “share additional findings when they are available, taking any necessary steps to protect the security of

Visitors who have completed health information on the site may have tracked their data for more than a year, according to Donohue, who said the LinkedIn campaign began in February 2024.

Calmatters watched the trackers directly in February and March this year. He confirmed that most advertising trackers, including Meta “Pixel” Tracker, as well as all third -party cookies, were removed from the site as of April 21.

Since 2014, more than 50 million Americans have registered For health insurance through state exchanges such as Cocte California. They were created under Affordable Care ActSigned in the law by President Barack Obama 15 years ago. States can either manage their exchange websites in partnership with the federal government or independently, As California doesS

The covered California works as an independent entity within the government of the state. This board is appointed by the governor and the legislature.

In March, California This, after four years of increasing recording, a record of nearly 2 million people was covered by health insurance through the program. In total, said the organization, about one in six Californians at one point was recorded through a covered California. Between 2014 and 2023, the uninsured percentage dropped from 17.2% to 6.4%, according to the organization, the largest decline in each country during this period of time. This coincided with a series of eligibility extensions to Medi-CalThe State Health Insurance Program for lower income households.

Experts were concerned about the idea that these millions of people could have sensitive health data sent to a private company without their knowledge or consent. Sarah Geogeagan, a senior advisor at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said he was “concerned and invasive” so that the health insurance website can send data that “completely irrelevant” for the use of a profit company like LinkedIn.

“It’s a pity,” she said, “because people do not expect that their health information will be collected and used in this way.”

LinkedIn Insight label

Calletatters and marking in recent months, scanned for trackers of hundreds of California states and government websites offering services for undocumented immigrants using Black lightAn automated tool developed by the website tracking marking marking.

“People do not expect their health information to be collected and used in this way.”

Sarah Geogegan, Senior Advisor at the Electronic Privacy Information Center

Calmatters found that the covered California had more than 60 trackers on its site. Of the more than 200 of the government sites, the average number of sites on the sites was three. Coated California had dozens more than any other website we looked at.

At sciftca.com, tracing from well-known social media companies such as META, gathered information about visitors’ views, while less well-known analysis and media campaigns such as LiveIntent Email Marketing Company are also following users throughout the site.

But far the most sensitive information is transmitted to LinkedIn.

While some of the data sent to LinkedIn were relatively harmless, such as what pages were visited, California also sent the company detailed information when visitors chose doctors to check that they were covered by a plan, including their specialization. The site also told LinkedIn if anyone had sought a particular hospital.

In addition to demographic information, including gender, the site also shared details with LinkedIn when visitors chose their ethnicity and family condition, and when they told Scoverca.com how often do doctors see surgery or outpatient treatment.

LinkedIn, like other major social media companies, offers a way to websites to easily transmit data to their visitors through a tracking tool that sites can place on their pages. In the case of LinkedIn, this The instrument is called an insight markerS Using the label, businesses and other organizations can later targeted ads In LinkedIn to users who have already shown interest in their products or services. For an e -commerce site that tracks on a page, it may be able to note when someone adds a product to their cart and the business can send ads to this product to the same person in their emissions on social media.

A health care market such as Scift California can use trackers to reach a group of people who may be interested in a reminder for a deadline for detecting health insurance recording, for example.

In its statement, the covered California noted the usefulness of these tools, stating that the organization “uses the tools of the LinkedIn advertising platform to understand users’ behavior and to provide personalized messages to help them make informed decisions about their healthcare opportunities.”

Tracking can also be valuable to social media companies they offer them. In addition to driving sales of ads, they provide the opportunity to collect information about website visitors other than their own.

To its information page Regarding the label of Insight, LinkedIn puts the weight on websites that use the label to avoid using it in risky situations. The label “should not be installed on web pages that collect or contain sensitive data”, advises the page, including “pages offering specific health or financial services or users’ products”.

LinkedIn spokesman Brico Ruf said in a statement by email: “Our advertising and documentation agreement explicitly prohibits customers from installing the Insight marker on web pages that collect or contain sensitive data, including health -related services. We do not allow advertisers to direct advertisements.

Jurisdiction

The collection of sensitive information from tracing social media in previous cases has led to the removal of tracing, lawsuits and control of state and federal legislators.

For example, after marking in 2022. revealed the Ministry of Education Send Personal Information to Facebook When students applied for financial assistance at college online, the department turned off the sharing facing questions of two members of the Congress and was two -time who sought more information about sharing. Other stories in the same A series of trackers known as a pixel huntalso resulted in changes and blowing, including a Repression by the Federal Commercial Commission To Telehealth Company, transmitting personal information to companies, including META and Google without user consent and proposed court cases over information shared by trackers with Drugstores, Health Suppliersand Tax preparatory companiesS

LinkedIn has already been faced with numerous court cases related to the collection of medical information. In October, Three new lawsuits in the California courts This LinkedIn violated consumer privacy by collecting information about medical meetings, including a fertility clinic.

Social media tracking practices are at the heart of the huge growth of the technology industry, but few users on the web are aware of how far the tracking goes. “This is absolutely contrary to the expectation of the average consumer,” Geoggan said.

In California, the law, called the California Law on the Privacy of Medical Information, regulates the confidentiality of medical information in the country. According to the law, users must give permission to some organizations before disclosing their medical information to third parties. Companies face litigation under the Law on Use of Web Tracking Technologies, although these costumes have has not always been successfulS

Geoghegan said current defenses like these do not go far enough to help users protect their sensitive data.

“This is an exact example of why we need better protection,” she told LinkedIn, receiving the data. “This is sensitive health information that users expect to be protected and the lack of regulations fail us.”

This article was Originally Published on CalMatters and was reissued under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Noderivatives License.