Senator Ron Wyden, D-OR
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A group of 42 Democrats called on Google CEO Sundar Pichai in a letter Tuesday to stop collecting and storing unnecessary or non-aggregated location data that could be used to identify abortion seekers.
The letter comes before the expected annulment of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court’s case defending federal abortion law, after Politico published a draft opinion that would do just that. The court has not yet issued a final decision, but the chief judge confirmed that the draft is authentic.
The prospect has raised fears that location or search history data could be used against people seeking abortion or those offering it in states where it is illegal to obtain it.
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Led by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., And Representative Anna Yeshua, D-California, lawmakers wrote: “We are concerned that in a world where abortion may be outlawed, Google’s current practice of collecting and preserving Extensive records of cell phone location data will allow it to become a tool for far-right extremists who want to fight people seeking reproductive health. That’s because Google stores historical information about the location of hundreds of millions of smartphone users, which it regularly shares with government agencies.
According to the letter, Google said it had received 11,554 orders for the geozone in 2020, a type of court order that would require the company to transmit data from users to a specific location at a specific time. It is not clear how many of them Google has collaborated with.
“While Google deserves credit for being one of the first companies in America to push for an order before disclosing law enforcement locations, that’s not enough,” lawmakers wrote. “If abortion becomes illegal by the far-right Supreme Court and Republican lawmakers, right-wing prosecutors will inevitably receive legal orders to prosecute, persecute and imprison women for critical reproductive health care. The only way to protect your Customer Location data from such outrageous government surveillance is to not protect it in the first place. “
Legislators have distinguished between Google and Apple, saying: “Apple has shown that smartphone companies do not need to maintain invasive tracking databases for their customers’ locations. Google’s deliberate choice to do this is to create a new digital divide that makes privacy and security a luxury. Americans who can afford an iPhone have more confidentiality than government surveillance of their movements than tens of millions of Americans use Android devices. “
Last week, 16 Democrats signed a letter to Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan, calling on the agency to protect the confidentiality of data on those seeking reproductive health care.
A Google spokesman did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
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