The government has a permanent data warehouse of all Healthcare.gov users

Following the recent revelation that a massive hack of government databases exposed the personal information of millions of federal workers, the Associated Press reports that information on every Healthcare.gov user has been saved in a permanent data warehouse.

While it is not atypical to retain some data about site users, the lack of a delete date has raised concerns among privacy advocates. "A basic privacy principle is that you don't retain data any longer than you have to," said Lee Tien of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "The more data you keep, the more harm an attacker or unauthorized person can do."

These fears are compounded by a Government Accountability Office report which found that the system was put into use before the completion of a full audit of privacy risks, as well as as the fact that the data is regularly shared with an unknown selection of government agencies and private insurers.

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