State governments looking to protect health-related data as it’s used in abortion battle

State governments across the U.S. are adopting or considering laws that would block the sale of personal health data or information about who visits sensitive sites such as sexual health facilities

By GEOFF MULVIHILL, Associated Press
February 16, 2024

Some state governments and federal regulators were already moving to keep individuals' reproductive health information private when a U.S. senator’s report last week offered a new jolt, describing how cellphone location data was used to send millions of anti-abortion ads to people who visited Planned Parenthood offices.

Federal law bars medical providers from sharing health data without a patient’s consent but doesn’t prevent digital tech companies from tracking menstrual cycles or an individual’s location and selling it to data brokers. Legislation for federal bans have never gained momentum, largely because of opposition from the tech industry.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/state-governments-protect-health-related-data-abortion-battle-107313291

USA – Googling abortion? Your details aren’t as private as you think

Johana Bhuiyan in New York
Tue 29 Nov 2022

In the wake of the US supreme court’s overturning of Roe v Wade, Google pledged fresh policies to protect people’s abortion-related data. But new research has shown the way our location and other personal data is stored remains largely unchanged, raising fears that intimate details of a person’s abortion search could be used to penalize them.

Google responds to tens of thousands of requests each year from law enforcement agencies seeking access to the vast troves of data collected on its users. In one six-month period in 2021, the most recent data publicly available, Google received nearly 47,000 law enforcement requests, affecting more than 100,000 accounts, and responded with some amount of data to 80% of them. The Dobbs decision sparked concerns that such data could be used to prosecute people seeking abortions in states where it is banned – for instance, if they searched for or traveled to an abortion clinic.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/29/abortion-rights-us-google-roe-dobbs

29.11.2022

Commentary

Featured

abortion surveillance

Accountable Tech

Aditi Ramesh

digital surveillance and abortion

Giliann Karon

Google Maps and abortion

Google searches for abortion

Jackie Singh

Surveillance Technology Oversight Project

Tom Kemp

Winnie King

United States

Nebraska – Facebook gave police their private data. Now, this duo face abortion charges

Experts say it underscores the importance of encryption and minimizing the amount of user data tech companies can store
Johana Bhuiyan
Wed 10 Aug 2022

In the wake of the supreme court’s upheaval of Roe v Wade, tech workers and privacy advocates expressed concerns about how the user data tech companies stored could be used against people seeking abortions.

When a Facebook staffer posed the dilemma to the chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, asking how the platform would protect the user data of individuals seeking abortion care, Zuckerberg said the company’s ongoing push to encrypt messaging would help protect people from “bad behavior or over-broad requests for information”.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/10/facebook-user-data-abortion-nebraska-police

Facebook and Anti-Abortion Clinics Are Collecting Highly Sensitive Info on Would-Be Patients

by Grace Oldham and Dhruv Mehrotra
June 15, 2022

Facebook is collecting ultra-sensitive personal data about abortion seekers and enabling anti-abortion organizations to use that data as a tool to target and influence people online, in violation of its own policies and promises.

In the wake of a leaked Supreme Court opinion signaling the likely end of nationwide abortion protections, privacy experts are sounding alarms about all the ways people’s data trails could be used against them if some states criminalize abortion.

https://revealnews.org/article/facebook-data-abortion-crisis-pregnancy-center/

Enforcing Criminal Abortion Bans Post-Roe: ‘A Massive Escalation of Surveillance’

6/7/2022
by CARRIE N. BAKER, Ms. Magazine

New York-based privacy group Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.) released a chilling report last month detailing the digital surveillance threats facing pregnant women who seek abortion information and services, and how these threats could escalate dramatically if the Supreme Court repeals abortion rights and states criminalize abortion.

“Police, prosecutors and private anti-abortion litigants will weaponize existing American surveillance infrastructure to target pregnant people and use their health data against them in a court of law,” according to the report, titled “Pregnancy Panopticon: Abortion Surveillance After Roe.” “This isn’t speculation—it’s already happening.”

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2022/06/07/police-abortion-bans-roe-v-wade-surveillance/

USA – ‘Uterus surveillance’: The scramble to keep abortion data from prying eyes

Telemedicine groups are looking to bolster privacy protections ahead of Roe decision.

By BEN LEONARD
05/20/2022

Telemedicine abortion groups, fearful of digital surveillance from states curbing access in a potential post-Roe nation, are shoring up privacy defenses and urging people seeking abortions to take steps to protect their data.

If the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, telehealth would be crucial to people seeking abortion care, particularly those who live in states that would ban the procedure. Many people are expected to drive across state lines for virtual visits from their cars or have abortion pills mailed to a state where they are allowed, experts said — moves that could create legal risks.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/20/uterus-surveillance-the-scramble-to-keep-abortion-data-from-prying-eyes-00033775