Security News 4.7 million customers’ data accidentally leaked to Google by Blue Shield of California

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Content source

https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2025/04/4-7-million-customers-data-accidentally-leaked-to-google-by-blue-shield-of-california

Blue Shield of California leaked the personal data of 4.7 million people to Google after a Google Analytics misconfiguration. The tech giant may have used this data for targeted advertising, according to Blue Shield, which is one of the largest health insurers in the US.

In a data breach notice on its website, Blue Shield says it had begun notifying “certain members of a potential data breach that may have included elements of their protected health information.”

Blue Shield a nonprofit health insurer serving nearly 6 million members, used Google Analytics to monitor how customers interacted with its websites to improve services. However, a configuration error in Google Analytics allowed sensitive member data to spill to Google Ads, potentially exposing customer data for almost three years. This likely included protected health information.

Blue Shield stated, “Google may have used this data to show targeted ad campaigns to individual members.”

4.7 million customers' data accidentally leaked to Google by Blue Shield of California

Blue Shield of California said it accidentally leaked the personal data of 4.7 million individuals to Google after a Google Analytics misconfiguration.

www.malwarebytes.com