Sensitive migrant data mishandled, former Chicago shelter contractors allege
People hang out in front of what was Chicago’s largest migrant shelter in Pilsen on Feb. 23, 2024. The city closed this shelter in September. Mauricio Peña/Borderless Magazine
This story was a collaboration between the Investigative Project on Race and Equity and Borderless Magazine. Read our investigation into Favorite Healthcare Staffing.
Tens of thousands of new arrivals have passed through Chicago’s migrant shelter system. Many of them might have had their data compromised because of how shelter employees and contractors handled their personal information, according to former shelter staff and documents reviewed by Borderless Magazine and the Investigative Project on Race and Equity.
In a complaint submitted to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) this month, two former Favorite Healthcare Staffing case managers contracted by Favorite alleged that Chicago’s shelters violated health information privacy laws by allowing shelter staff to access and download sensitive information on their own personal devices. The complaint notes that Favorite, the staffing company the City of Chicago hired to manage the migrant shelters, did not require data to be encrypted and allowed employees and independent contractors to share medical and other personal information over insecure communication channels.