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US healthcare marketplaces shared citizenship and race data with ad tech giants
- jaspanglia 4mo agoHealthcare and caregiving products depend heavily on user trust. Even useful technology can create hesitation if users don’t clearly understand how their data is being stored, shared, or used.
- ZeidJ 5mo agoBloomberg Study: https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2026-healthcare-advertising-trackers-privacy/ https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2026-healthcare-advertisi...
- shevy-java 5mo agoThe US citizens will have to fight down those corporate overlords. It is now really just shameful how they leech off of the common man (and common woman). People in democracies outside of the USA shake their head in sadness now. Even Canada is doing better here - don't tell anyone the crazy orange king, for he may begin to potty-mouth and threaten them with invasion again.
- aksss 5mo agocorporate overlords? These are the state governments selling your data. The call is coming from inside the house. The sooner we realize that government is comprised of the same slithering slime of human greed and laziness, the more realistic discussions we can have.
- DangitBobby 5mo agoIt's not even remotely the same scale. At least the government ostensibly has its incentives aligned with the public. False equivance gets us further from where we need to by focusing people on the wrong problems.
- aksss 5mo ago"Ostensibly" is the mistake in your formula. Current events are replete with examples to the contrary. It's not equivocating to recognize that governments are organizations of humans, subject to the same limitations - the larger they get, the harder they are to manage well; talent is incredibly important to success in mission; leadership is incredibly important to integrity, ethics, and strategy; lower oversight and mediocre control structures lead to abuse. You can see the challenges that government as an organization has there. And as to scale..? Son. At least you can "ostensibly" choose whether or not to interact with corporations unless they are colluding with... government.
- DangitBobby 5mo agoConsider the bulk of your comment to be directed similarly as criticism to corporations, minus effective correction mechanism, plus direct incentive to extract as much wealth as possible by providing as little value as possible.
- aksss 5mo agoWhich isn’t to say government is bad as an institution.. just to say that we regard it with an assumption of good faith at our collective peril - it’s track record counsels the opposite.
- DangitBobby 5mo agoIt would be comical hear this as if you think it contrasts with companies if I didn't know you believed it. The very "slime" that leads to the government doing these things accumulates at the behest of the entities you're defending.
- josefritzishere 5mo agoHow is this not a HIPAA violation?
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- dekhn 5mo agoHIPAA as a law is intended to ease transfer of medical information, not restrict it.
- ux266478 5mo agoThat's not true. It's intended to define a regulated and standard means of transferring medical information while ensuring confidentiality and patient privacy. https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/privacy/laws-regulations/index.html https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/privacy/laws-reg... You have to explicitly grant permission for your data to be sold. What's very likely is that either the healthcare provider or insurance company included a request for authorization to sell that data, and the authorization was signed without paying much attention to it.
- dekhn 5mo agoYou're referring to the privacy rule, which is only part of the law (and not its primary prupose). The original intent of the law was to ensure easy transfer of information to keep health coverage when changing jobs. The privacy rule was not even part of the original law, it was added by HHS 3 years later. See more details here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK9576/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK9576/
- arikrahman 5mo agoThe article you cited states congress was aware of privacy concerns at the time and covered them as part of the third stated provision.
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- wewtyflakes 5mo agoIt should be illegal to send the data, and illegal to accept it; burn both sides of that bridge.
- Eddy_Viscosity2 5mo agoWhy would politicians ever pass such a law? Who do you think they work for? update: Yeah, my bad. The point of this comment was to express my increasing cynicism at how we just keep seeing this kind of corporate behavior over and over again and how even when a tiny win is achieved on things like data collection, right to repair, ease for cancelling subscriptions, privacy, and so on and so on, they are so quickly over taken by new tactics or clawbacks/loopholes/non-enforcement of those laws. HN comments was probably the wrong place to vent and its too late to delete it.
- post-it 5mo agoWhat's the point of this kind of comment? Have pro-citizen anti-corporate laws never been passed in the past?
- wilg 5mo agoThe point of the comment is to spread toxic and deadly cynicism.
- arikrahman 5mo agoAnd also to karma farm. Thankfully the comment is greyed out for what it is.
- TheOtherHobbes 5mo agoYou never see corporate media doing anything like that.
- traderj0e 5mo agoIf you never trust anyone, nobody will ever fool you except for yourself.
- mistrial9 5mo agoanecdata - in Berkeley CA, in the late 2010s, two individuals showed up to be in the fast-paced AD scene. One was from a former Soviet Union country, who spoke English pretty well .. and the other a woman from Columbia .. to say that both of these two were "aggressive" is an understatement. He spoke English, she was in charge of "security" .. after a very few meetups, they both formed a company for "Ad tech for Hospitals" .. it was "heavy security" they said, and therefore did not discuss any details in public. They very obviously would do "aggressive" actions to get into the business, defeat competitors, and satisfy ..clients? Who were they satisfying with the cultural norms, constantly aggressive stance, move fast and break things approach? Every single person involved had the motivation of Big Money, Now.
- levocardia 5mo agoThe actual "sharing" was using the Meta pixel and TikTok's equivalent, presumably so the healthcare exchanges could do retargeting or similarity-based marketing to get people to sign up for health care coverage. Which, narrowly, seems like a reasonable thing to do. But of course using the pixel automatically "shares" the data with Meta/ByteDance/whoever, and they get to use it for whatever nefarious purpose they want.
- nickburns 5mo agoThe state healthcare exchanges doing any kind of targeting and/or marketing, even to 'get people' to sign up for subsidized healthcare, could also be conceived of as unreasonable. I could be wrong, but I wouldn't think their mandate under the ACA contemplates any targeting or marketing of themselves whatsoever—even if it's ostensibly to increase enrollment. That it feels like there's an implicit assumption that they would (target or market) seems to be part of the problem.
- vkou 5mo ago> could also be conceived of as unreasonable It could also be conceived of as perfectly reasonable. One of the many (some very flawed) purposes of the ACA was to get more people insured, advertising that state-subsidized insurance is available for you is absolutely in that wheelhouse. If retargeting is the problem, it should be banned across the board, both for public and private ad campaigns.
- pengaru 5mo agoWhat was that saying about paving the roads to hell?
- Spooky23 5mo agoNefarious indeed. Once they know who you are, they match you against insurance industry databases and can infer many health conditions and other stuff. If you’re timely with prenatal care, marketers can predict a woman’s delivery data within a week with high confidence.
- fusslo 5mo ago> Nearly all of the 20 state-run health insurance exchanges in the US have added advertising trackers that transmit user activity ...why? > State officials say they embed this technology on the exchanges to measure marketing campaigns and to advertise to people who visit their sites What an absurdist reality we live in > Tara Lee, a spokesperson for the Washington state exchange, said the tracker on the site was used for advertising campaigns, adding that email, phone and country identifiers were shared with TikTok. https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2026-healthcare-advertising-trackers-privacy/ https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2026-healthcare-advertisi... Personally, I feel local government should not be engaging these services in this way. I don't feel that it's a wise use and that our government employees should be more protective of the public who use their services.
- Legend2440 5mo ago>...why? The same reason that I put Google Analytics on my blog in 2014. They want to know how many people are using their site and how. And like me, they didn't think about the fact that these analytics services are run by advertising companies that may use the data for other purposes. Unlike me, they have privacy laws to follow because they work with health data.
- nickburns 5mo ago> They want to know how many people are using their site and how. Yeah, why?
- lava_pidgeon 5mo agoCookie Banner isn't such a bad idea now
- downbad_ 5mo agoThe richest tech companies and richest men in the world got rich by invading people's privacy and selling invasive ads.
- TehCorwiz 5mo ago> The richest tech companies and richest men in the world got rich by invading people's privacy and ~selling invasive ads.~ I think you mean "manipulating content algorithms to favor their viewpoints and to target individuals for maximum effect."
- mcmcmc 5mo agoThey got rich because people were stupid enough to think free services come without a cost.
- consumer451 5mo agoIf we have learned anything in recent decades, it is that we are all easily manipulated, and we are all pretty darn stupid.
- tardedmeme 5mo agoPeople prefer to pay with tracking data instead of money because they have lots of tracking data and not much money.
- nomel 5mo agoI would claim it's "better" these days than previously. At first, everyone thought they were getting something for free, no strings. Now it seems that even the "uneducated" public understands most of it...they just don't seem to care. The only one that people seem to be unaware of is the fairly precise location tracking that happens.
- mcmcmc 5mo agoAnd also because they don’t realize how effectively that tracking data can be used to manipulate their emotions and behavior with the goal of squeezing out what money they do have.
- tantalor 5mo ago> whether they provided details about whether they have incarcerated family members Okay. That's not much of a signal, is it? This is "metadata" level of detail.
- tamimio 5mo agoUS isn’t a country, it’s an economic zone run by few corporates, who bribe and push law makers to pass whatever laws they like, everyone is winning except the citizens of that “country”.
- deferredgrant 5mo ago[flagged]
- hyperadvanced 5mo agoIs it that incomprehensible that you might want to limit healthcare offerings to lawful residents only, or that the government might track metadata about how services are doing so, regardless of how they choose to take action on it?
- xp84 5mo agoI’m more annoyed that these government healthcare marketplaces are asking people their race in the first place. Really don’t think anything should be, including job applications.
- jjtheblunt 5mo agoI never (in the US) have understood why those questions include separate questions for race (seems to be like white or black or asian) and for ethnicity, including a really odd question about Latino or non Latino. Why those questions, but no Danish vs non Danish, and so on?
- nostromo 5mo agoIt's because latinos can be white, black, or native - and historically most people tracking these data wanted to group latinos independently of non-latino whites, blacks, and natives.
- dominotw 5mo agodo they ask about pre existing conditions? then prbly race also makes sense.
- xp84 5mo ago1. one of the main points of the ACA that hasn't been rolled back is that they can't worry about pre-existing conditions anymore 2. even if they could, it would be pretty illegal, I think/hope, to then be like "Oh, well your sickle cell anemia is going to be paid for differently, because everyone knows black people statistically have more of that.
- worik 5mo ago> do they ask about pre existing conditions? then prbly race also makes sense Why?
- TallGuyShort 5mo agoI used a state (Colorado) healthcare marketplace website when I was going to take a break between jobs for a couple of months, and I feel very violated by the whole process. I entered a bunch of information to the website, knowing that the data could be expected to be shared for quotes, but I got no quote. The information didn't just flow between systems, it was just sent directly to a bunch of individuals. Instead of getting anything useful from the website, I just got told that agents would contact me, and then literally hundreds of agents were calling and texting me at all hours of the day and night for weeks. I asked one of them how to get it to stop and they said it was impossible during the government shutdown.
- consumer451 5mo agoWelcome to the reality of the US federal government not even trying to do something like GDPR.
- paulryanrogers 5mo agoThe dysfunction is intentional. Baby steps to rollback ACA. Every small inconvenience pushes voters closer to their side.
- teaearlgraycold 5mo agoSo many things are intentionally broken. All of the complaints about illegal immigrants working on our farms, and yet no mention that we do have a migratory laborer visa - it's just the quota is way too low.
- Amezarak 5mo agoPeople complaining about illegal immigrants doing farm labor mostly don’t want you to simply give them paperwork making them legal, they want the pipeline of migrant labor restricted so labor prices are forced to rise enough to make the jobs worthwhile for citizens. I’ve noticed this is a common disconnect.
- 59percentmore 5mo ago[flagged]
- offmycloud 5mo agoI'm still surprised by the number of web developers who do not understand that, once you include someone else's Javascript on your site, they have full access to everything on your site, including all submitted customer data.
- krior 5mo agoCan someone from the US explain what race even means in this context and how it is determined?
- durkie 5mo agoi believe it is self-declared.
- BowBun 5mo agoYes, this is a common point of confusion when talking to Europeans about racial issues in the US (as I found out myself recently). Race in our contexts refers to your background/birthplace/heritage. On our government forms: "What race are you?" "White, black, hispanic, etc." This is fundamentally different by intent than in Europe (using french here) where we refer to 'la race humaine' which is the _species_. The nuance is critical during debates. While I was discussing racial differences to some Swiss folks, they thought I was talking Nazi propaganda! We are all part of the human species, the human species has many races. We are all equal!
- Ylpertnodi 5mo agoMost Europeans are NOT confused by this. Sheesh.
- toasty228 5mo agoTry asking anyone in Europe what race they are, especially in an administrative context lmao
- PearlRiver 5mo agoThe government asking race questions on official forms would be rather unthinkable! We don't mention the war.
- BowBun 5mo agoI am European, I have had this discussion with Europeans back home from various countries. This is a common point of confusion. Do you have something to add?
- alucardo 5mo ago"race data"... this isn't a thing, this should not be a thing. am i the only one being shocked?
- Pacers31Colts18 5mo agoThis is nothing new. They do the same with drivers license data.
- zx8080 5mo agoFor someone not familiar with the US legal system, something is not clear here: if that's Meta/Facebook tracking via pixel, than why it's not possible to sue them for it? Or if that tracking is considered legal in this particular case - WHY?
- kittikitti 5mo agoFrom my experience working with health data, HIPAA laws are utilized to generate leverage against whoever the gatekeepers want. There's no expectation of privacy for anyone with HIPAA, it's a failed policy meant to intimidate. They hold up a disguise that it's very hard and strict and enforce these regulations to punish whoever they deem unworthy. Usually, it's big corporations targeting competition with needles lawsuits. I've seen unfathomable abuses in HIPAA privacy laws. Some of it is was for my own health records. If you only knew how bad it was. I can't detail it all because their lawyers will bully and intimidate me like they already have. HIPAA was a way to provide surveillance of your health. Corporations, governments, law enforcement, healthcare professionals, or even a petulant child that annoys a parent who's a doctor has access to everyone's health records. The public sentiment on HIPAA laws is just so backwards.
- avazhi 5mo agoOk? 2 relevant attributes as it turns out.
- giwook 5mo agoAnd just when you thought the American healthcare landscape couldn't be any more fucked.