California State Health Insurance Provider, Covered California, Shared Personal Data of More Than Two Million Californians with LinkedIn

​More than 2 million Californians are enrolled in Covered California, the state’s health insurance marketplace under the Affordable Care Act. Last year, some of these enrollees had their personal data shared with LinkedIn.
Recent forensic testing by CalMatters’ Tomas Apodaca and Colin Lecher revealed that Covered California’s website has been sending sensitive data to the for-profit job recruiting social networking site — and that visitors could have had their data tracked for more than a year.

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As visitors filled out forms on Covered California’s website, trackers sent information to Linkedin. The information included whether visitors were blind, pregnant or used a high number of prescription medications. The trackers also monitored whether visitors said they were transgender or possible victims of domestic abuse.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Covered California confirmed that data was sent to LinkedIn as part of an advertising campaign that began in February 2024.
​Since CalMatters and The Markup’s reporting about the issue, however, most, but not all, ad trackers have been removed from the site.