Dive Brief:
- CMS says it will not track users this enrollment season who toggle a setting in their browser that sends the request to the HealthCare.gov website.
- In addition, a new page will allow users to opt out of third-party advertising tools.
- The website will also not place advertising-related trackers on computers of those who opt out. It will also not load third-party tools for those users so they do not have to worry about outside pieces of software tracking them.
Dive Insight:
This is part of a growing trend by the healthcare marketplace to enhance user privacy, according to Kevin Counihan, CEO of the Health Insurance Marketplaces. "If you choose to opt out, you'll still have access to everything on the site, but we won't use information from your visit to analyze the site's technical performance or use digital advertising to remind you about helpful information like deadlines," he told The Hill.
Privacy advocates have wanted to make Do Not Track requests more efficient. The Electronic Frontier Foundation said earlier this year it developed a system for websites with privacy policies that honor requests would be able to display ads to users who did not want to be tracked.
The group said this would give websites an incentive to honor Do Not Track requests: If they honored the requests and didn't collect data on users, they could make money by serving them ads that would otherwise be blocked.