Obamacare: data-mining firms are embedded on healthcare website

 It is now being reported in this story that data mining companies are embedded on the Obamacare website and they are able to collect some of your personal information.

  Here is more:

A little-known side to the government’s health insurance website is prompting renewed concerns about privacy, just as the White House is calling for stronger cybersecurity protections for consumers.

It works like this: When you apply for coverage on HealthCare.gov, dozens of data companies may be able to tell that you are on the site. Some can even glean details such as your age, income, ZIP code, whether you smoke or if you are pregnant.

The data firms have embedded connections on the government site. Ever-evolving technology allows for individual Internet users to be tracked, building profiles that are a vital tool for advertisers.

Connections to multiple third-party tech firms were documented by technology experts who analyzed HealthCare.gov, and confirmed by The Associated Press. There is no evidence that personal information from HealthCare.gov has been misused, but the number of outside connections is raising questions.

in a recent visit to the site, AP found that certain personal details — including age, income, and whether you smoke — were being passed along likely without your knowledge to advertising and Web analytics sites.

  At this point there is no proof that any of the information gathered is being misused but that does not mean it cannot, or will not, be misused in the future.

“As I look at vendors on a website…they could be another potential point of failure,” said corporate cybersecurity consultant Theresa Payton. “Vendor management can often be the weakest link in your privacy and security chain.”

A former White House chief information officer under President George W. Bush, she said the large number of outside connections on HealthCare.gov seems like “overkill” and makes it “kind of an outlier” among government websites.

  And here is more:

Still, the outside connections surprised a tech expert who evaluated HealthCare.gov’s performance for AP.

“Anything that is health-related is something very private,” said Mehdi Daoudi, CEO of Catchpoint Systems. “Personally, I look at this, and I am on a government website, and I don’t know what is going on between the government and Facebook, and Google, and Twitter. Why is that there?”

  I have to correct one thing in the statement above: anything health-related is SUPPOSED to be private however it appears as if it is no longer all that private. Barack Obama is talking a good game right now in regards to cyber-security but perhaps he should start by putting his money where his mouth is by ordering these companies to be removed from the healthcare website. After all, he does have a pen and a phone doesn’t he?

  This does not give a person a warm and fuzzy feeling, does it?