Just when you thought Big Tech couldn’t get any more invasive, California’s health insurance exchange, Covered California, managed to pull off a jaw-dropping privacy blunder that’ll make your data security nightmares feel totally justified.

The Digital Privacy Disaster

Imagine sharing your most personal health details on a government website, thinking you’re in a safe space, only to discover those intimate insights were casually leaked to LinkedIn. That’s exactly what happened when Covered California’s website used a tracking tool that sent super sensitive information - like whether you’re pregnant, transgender, or dealing with domestic violence - straight to the professional networking platform.

Wait, What Actually Happened?

Through some forensic tech detective work, journalists uncovered that Covered California’s website was essentially oversharing like that one friend who tells everyone everything after a few drinks. Their marketing trackers were broadcasting personal health information to LinkedIn for over a year, completely unbeknownst to users.

The Fallout

Now, House lawmakers are demanding answers, and Covered California is scrambling to explain how this massive privacy breach occurred. The incident has sparked potential legal action, with a class-action lawsuit already in the works and federal investigations looming. LinkedIn, for its part, explicitly prohibits sharing health data through its tracking tools - whoops.

The real kicker? This isn’t even an isolated incident. Investigations have revealed four other state health exchanges are playing fast and loose with personal data. Welcome to the wild west of digital privacy, folks - where your most personal information is just another commodity.