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   From: leroysoetoro@americans-first.com   
      
   https://timesofsandiego.com/health/2025/04/28/covered-california-data-   
   linkedin/   
      
   The website that lets Californians shop for health insurance under the   
   Affordable Care Act, coveredca.com, has been sending sensitive data to   
   LinkedIn, forensic testing by CalMatters has revealed.   
      
   As visitors filled out forms on the website, trackers on the same pages   
   told LinkedIn their answers to questions about whether they were blind,   
   pregnant, or used a high number of prescription medications. The trackers   
   also monitored whether the visitors said they were transgender or possible   
   victims of domestic abuse. (See the data on our Github repo.)   
      
   Covered California, the organization that operates the website, removed   
   the trackers as CalMatters and The Markup reported this article. The   
   organization said they were removed “due to a marketing agency transition”   
   in early April.   
      
   In a statement, Kelly Donohue, a spokesperson for the agency, confirmed   
   that data was sent to LinkedIn as part of an advertising campaign. Since   
   being informed of the tracking, “all active advertising-related tags   
   across our website have been turned off out of an abundance of caution,”   
   she added.   
      
   “Covered California has initiated a review of our websites and information   
   security and privacy protocols to ensure that no analytics tools are   
   impermissibly sharing sensitive consumer information,” Donohue said,   
   adding that they would “share additional findings as they become   
   available, taking any necessary steps to safeguard the security and   
   privacy of consumer data.”   
      
   https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/pregnant-   
   screenshots-CM.png?resize=1024%2C630&ssl=1   
      
   When an individual indicated they were pregnant, the information was sent   
   to LinkedIn via the Insight Tag.   
      
   Visitors who filled out health information on the site may have had their   
   data tracked for more than a year, according to Donohue, who said the   
   LinkedIn campaign began in February 2024.   
      
   CalMatters observed the trackers directly in February and March of this   
   year. It confirmed most ad trackers, including the Meta “pixel” tracker,   
   as well as all third-party cookies, have been removed from the site as of   
   April 21.   
      
   Since 2014, more than 50 million Americans have signed up for health   
   insurance through state exchanges like Covered California. They were set   
   up under the Affordable Care Act, signed into law by President Barack   
   Obama 15 years ago. States can either operate their exchange websites in   
   partnership with the federal government or independently, as California   
   does.   
      
   Covered California operates as an independent entity within the state   
   government. Its boardis appointed by the governor and Legislature.   
      
   In March, Covered California announced that, after four years of   
   increasing enrollment, a record of nearly 2 million people were covered by   
   health insurance through the program. In all, the organization said, about   
   one in six Californians were at one point enrolled through Covered   
   California. Between 2014 and 2023, the uninsured rate fell from 17.2% to   
   6.4%, according to the organization, the largest drop of any state during   
   that time period. This coincided with a series of eligibility expansions   
   to Medi-Cal, the state’s health insurance program for lower-income   
   households.   
      
   Experts expressed alarm at the idea that those millions of people could   
   have had sensitive health data sent to a private company without their   
   knowledge or consent. Sara Geoghegan, senior counsel at the Electronic   
   Privacy Information Center, said it was “concerning and invasive” for a   
   health insurance website to be sending data that was “wholly irrelevant”   
   to the uses of a for-profit company like LinkedIn.   
      
   “It’s unfortunate,” she said, “because people don’t expect that their   
   health information will be collected and used in this way.”   
      
   The LinkedIn Insight Tag   
   CalMatters and The Markup in recent months scanned for trackers on   
   hundreds of California state and county government websites that offer   
   services for undocumented immigrants using Blacklight, an automated tool   
   developed by The Markup for auditing website trackers.   
      
   CalMatters found that Covered California had more than 60 trackers on its   
   site. Out of more than 200 of the government sites, the average number of   
   trackers on the sites was three. Covered California had dozens more than   
   any other website we examined.   
      
   On coveredca.com, trackers from well-known social media firms like Meta   
   collected information on visitor page views, while lesser-known analytics   
   and media campaign companies like email marketing company LiveIntent also   
   followed users across the site.   
      
   But by far the most sensitive information was transmitted to LinkedIn.   
      
   While some of the data sent to LinkedIn was relatively innocuous, such as   
   what pages were visited, Covered California also sent the company detailed   
   information when visitors selected doctors to see if they were covered by   
   a plan, including their specialization. The site also told LinkedIn if   
   someone searched for a specific hospital.   
      
   https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/042425-   
   COVERED-CA-BUG-medical-provider-screenshots-CM.jpg?resize=1024%2C630&ssl=1   
      
   When an individual selected a medical provider, the information was sent   
   to LinkedIn via the Insight Tag.   
      
   In addition to demographic information including gender, the site also   
   shared details with LinkedIn when visitors selected their ethnicity and   
   marital status, and when they told coveredca.com how often they saw   
   doctors for surgery or outpatient treatment.   
      
   https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/042425-   
   COVERED-CA-BUG-race-ethnicity-screenshots-CM.jpg?resize=1024%2C630&ssl=1   
      
   When an individual selected their ethnicity, the information was sent to   
   LinkedIn via the Insight Tag.   
      
   LinkedIn, like other large social media firms, offers a way for websites   
   to easily transmit data on their visitors through a tracking tool that the   
   sites can place on their pages. In LinkedIn’s case, this tool is called   
   the Insight Tag.   
      
   By using the tag, businesses and other organizations can later target   
   advertisements on LinkedIn to consumers that have already shown interest   
   in their products or services. For an e-commerce site, a tracker on a page   
   might be able to note when someone added a product to their cart, and the   
   business can then send ads for that product to the same person on their   
   social media feeds.   
      
   A health care marketplace like Covered California might use the trackers   
   to reach a group of people who might be interested in a reminder of a   
   deadline for open health insurance enrollment, for example.   
      
   In its statement, Covered California noted the usefulness of these tools,   
      
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