Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.) says he is concerned that the Obamacare website is not protecting user's privacy, particularly since it asks for some health info, like whether a user is pregnant. He cited "buried" code in the site that suggested a user's information would not be kept private.
The offending line of code reads: "you have no reasonable expectation of privacy regarding any communications or data transiting or stored on this information system," according to a copy of the code Barton publicized.
Barton was among the legislators at a heated hearing in the House Energy & Commerce Committee Thursday on the problems with the website for signing up for the new health insurance plan.
Appearing on CNN after the hearing, Barton and Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) debated the privacy issue. Barton said that the site's disclaimer said users had no "reasonable expectation of privacy" and that that troubled him.
Barton is the cochair of the Congressional Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus and has long argued for more online privacy protections.
Pallone accused Barton of trying to scare people away from the site, while Barton said the truth shouldn't scare anyone. Pallone also denied that there were any privacy problems or issues with the site.
Barton posted the disclaimer code language on his Facebook page to let the public decide whether or not it violated their privacy protections. He suggested the White House could correct the problem by putting in explicit privacy protections.
