PALO ALTO, Calif., June 24 (Reuters) – The tech industry is preparing for the awkward possibility of having to hand over pregnancy-related data to law enforcement following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling Friday to overturn Roe v. A precedent for Wade, who for decades guaranteed a woman’s constitutional right to abortion. Read more
As state laws restricting abortion take effect after the ruling, technology traffickers told Reuters they feared police would receive orders about customer search history, geolocation and other information showing abortion plans. . Prosecutors may also have access to a summons.
Concerns reflect how data collection practices of companies such as Google’s Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O), Google, the parent of Facebook Meta Platforms Inc (META.O) and Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) have the potential to criminalize abortion seekers for the state laws that many in Silicon Valley oppose.
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“There are likely to be requests from these technology companies for information related to search history for websites visited,” said Cynthia Conti-Cook, a technology associate at the Ford Foundation.
Google declined to comment. Representatives of Amazon and Meta did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Folders containing medical records of abortions performed at a women’s clinic in Tulsa before the ban on abortions in Oklahoma are displayed in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA, June 20, 2022. REUTERS / Liliana Salgado / File photo
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Technology has long collected – and sometimes reveals – sensitive pregnancy-related information for consumers. In 2015, opponents of abortion targeted advertisements labeled “Pregnancy Aid” and “You Have a Choice” to people entering reproductive health clinics, using so-called geophening technology to identify smartphones in the area.
Mississippi prosecutors recently charged a mother with second-degree murder after her smartphone showed she was looking for abortion drugs in her third trimester, local media reported. Conti-Cook said, “I can’t even imagine the depth of information my phone has about my life.”
While suspects may unknowingly hand over their telephone numbers and volunteer information used for prosecution, investigators may turn to technology companies in the absence of convincing evidence or evidence. In the United States against Chatri, for example, police received a warrant for Google’s location data, which led them to Okelo Chatri in a 2019 bank robbery investigation.
Amazon, for example, complied at least partially with 75% of search warrants, subpoenas and other court orders requiring customer data in the United States, the company revealed for the three years ending in June 2020. It fully complied with 38%. Amazon has said it must abide by “valid and binding orders,” but its goal is to provide the “minimum” required by law.
Eva Galperin, director of cybersecurity at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said on Twitter on Friday: “The difference between now and the last time abortion was banned in the United States is that we live in an era of unprecedented digital surveillance.
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Report by Jeffrey Dustin and Katie Paul in Palo Alto, California, Paresh Dave in Oakland, California, and Stephen Nellis Edited by Anna Driver and Matthew Lewis
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