US state health exchanges shared user data with ad tech giants

An investigation by Bloomberg has revealed that almost all of the 20 U.S. state government-run health insurance marketplaces shared residents’ application information with advertising and tech giants. These platforms, which are government-run systems for purchasing health insurance, sent user data to companies including Google, LinkedIn, Meta, and Snap. The data sharing has broad implications, as more than seven million Americans purchased health insurance for this year through a state health insurance exchange.

The investigation highlighted specific instances of data sharing across several states. For example, Bloomberg reported that New York’s health insurance exchange shared information with several tech companies about a person’s application, including whether they provided details about whether they have incarcerated family members. In Washington, D.C., the local exchange asked residents about their sex and race, which TikTok’s pixel tracker attempted to redact, though some races were masked and others were not. A spokesperson for the Washington, D.C. exchange told Bloomberg that residents’ email address, phone number, and country identifiers were also shared with TikTok. Following these findings, Washington, D.C. paused its rollout of the TikTok tracker. Meanwhile, Virginia removed the Meta tracker from its website after Bloomberg found it was sharing residents’ ZIP codes with the tech giant.

The underlying issue involves the deployment of pixel-sized trackers, which are tools used to collect information about website visitors for analytics and advertising. While these trackers are common in digital advertising, they can collect personal information if they are misconfigured and placed on websites containing sensitive content, such as healthcare data. This issue has previously affected private telehealth startups and healthcare giants, several of which have had to notify millions of users that they inadvertently collected and shared health information with tech giants that derive profits from advertising. However, the Bloomberg investigation demonstrates that these trackers can affect large numbers of citizens when deployed on government-run platforms.

Why it matters

Government websites are increasingly using third-party ad tech, creating significant privacy risks for millions of citizens who rely on these platforms for essential services.