Health scores, sometimes referred to as socioeconomic health scores, are made up of potentially thousands of variables, combining lifestyle data such as the type of restaurants you dine at or the car you drive with medical diagnosis like hypertension and social factors including where you live and your education level.

From an optimistic standpoint, consumers use lifestyle and fitness trackers such as My Fitness Pal and Dacadoo to get in better shape and live a healthier life. The caveat being that such apps are voluntary. But even Dacadoo shares your data — “de-identified” of course…

But what about the scores that are calculated without your knowledge or consent? LexisNexis sits on troves of data and promotes their Socioeconomic Health Risk Score. Actuarial firms like Milliman that consult in the healthcare industry have partnered with LexisNexis to use their algorithms. What are they looking for? The graphic below is from a LexisNexis brochure touting the service.

Journalist Marshall Allen requested his data file from LexisNexis and was mailed a 182 page report containing all sorts of personal history. Health Data was not included and he was told by LexisNexis that if those scores were calculated, it was for an insurance company client and he would not have access to them.

If you would like to request a personal report from LexisNexis, you can do so here.