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🔒Health Insurance Marketplaces Share Data With Tech Giants

Your health insurance data is being shared with tech giants

TL;DR

US state-run health marketplaces are sharing residents' application info with tech companies. This includes personal details like incarcerated family members and race, raising privacy concerns.

Almost all US state government-run health insurance marketplaces have been found to share residents' application information with advertising and tech giants. The investigation uncovered that pixel-sized trackers allowed website owners to collect data for analytics and bug identification. These trackers can also gather personal information if misconfigured on websites containing sensitive content, such as healthcare data. New York's exchange shared details about incarcerated family members, while Washington, D.C.'s attempted to redact race but failed in some cases. Email addresses, phone numbers, and country identifiers were shared with TikTok by the D.C. exchange before pausing its rollout. Virginia removed a Meta tracker after finding it was sharing ZIP codes.

Health Insurance Marketplaces Share Data With Tech Giants — TechCrunch

Key Points

1

Almost all US state-run health marketplaces shared application info with tech companies

2

New York's exchange shared details about incarcerated family members

3

Washington D.C. attempted to redact race but failed in some cases

4

Virginia removed a Meta tracker after finding it was sharing ZIP codes

5

More than seven million Americans purchased health insurance through state exchanges

Why It Matters

If you're using a state-run health insurance marketplace, your data is at risk. New York's exchange shared details about incarcerated family members with tech giants. Washington D.C.'s attempt to redact race failed in some cases, showing the extent of privacy breaches.

health insurancedata sharingtech giantsprivacy concernsstate exchanges

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does this matter?

If you're using a state-run health insurance marketplace, your data is at risk. New York's exchange shared details about incarcerated family members with tech giants. Washington D.C.'s attempt to redact race failed in some cases, showing the extent of privacy breaches.

What happened?

US state-run health marketplaces are sharing residents' application info with tech companies. This includes personal details like incarcerated family members and race, raising privacy concerns.

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