Anti-abortion activists are using license plate tracking and body cameras to collect data on people arriving at clinics for prosecutions post-Roe v. Wade
Abby Ohlheiser / MIT Technology Review : Tweets: @techreview , @abortionchat , @maqart55 , @mat , @billprady , @charlottejee , @abbyohlheiser , @docmojavedesert , and @angryblacklady Tweets: @techreview : Anti-abortion activists are collecting the data they'll need for prosecutions post-Roe. Body cams and license plates are already being used to track people arriving at abortion clinics. https://www.technologyreview.com/ ... @abortionchat : They're literally stalkers and have been for years https://twitter.com/... @maqart55 : If you are in need of reproductive health services, look out for people collecting information about you. Get a ride with a friend, take the bus, park elsewhere and walk, wear a mask & sunglasses. PROTECT YOUR PRIVACY. https://twitter.com/... Mat Honan / @mat : There is evidence that anti-abortion activists are already keeping track of activity of the type that could be used in prosecutions in states with bans https://www.technologyreview.com/ ... Bill Prady / @billprady : Siri, what does it feel like to live under fascism? https://twitter.com/... Charlotte Jee / @charlottejee : This piece by @abbyohlheiser, about the surveillance tech and tactics anti-abortion activists are preparing to use to prosecute people seeking abortions post-Roe, is chilling beyond belief. https://www.technologyreview.com/ ... Abby Ohlheiser / @abbyohlheiser : While reporting this i learned that 1) this sort of tracking has been happening for decades and 2) it's really unclear what is actually happening with all these clipboards full of license plate numbers and patient descriptions. https://twitter.com/... DrBootiedo / @docmojavedesert : Men.....Volunteer as Escorts....Intimidate those who seek to Intimidate..... https://twitter.com/... @angryblacklady : start wearing masks to clinics. i'm not kidding. wear masks. take public transportation. park several blocks away from your destination and walk. digital and physical security are going to become critical. they are actively trying to toss pregnant people in jail. https://twitter.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
This story extends a decade-long arc of surveillance around abortion clinics. As early as 2016, anti-abortion groups were using smartphone geo-fencing to target ads at women inside clinics; by the time the draft ruling reversing Roe leaked, commercial location brokers were fielding direct requests for clinic-visitor device data, and Tapestri disclosed two companies asking to buy exactly that dataset.
What MIT Technology Review adds is the physical layer: license plate capture and body cameras turning sidewalk presence into prosecutable records. The digital side is already under pressure — SafeGraph stopped selling Planned Parenthood visitor location data, Google Maps has been found inconsistent in deleting clinic visits despite its pledge, and most online abortion-pill pharmacies leak sensitive data through third-party trackers.
First-order effects
- People arriving at clinics now face two parallel record systems — activists' own cameras and plates on-site, plus the commercial location trail their phones generate — either of which could surface in a post-Roe prosecution.
Second-order effects
- Data intermediaries face forced choices: SafeGraph's exit from selling family-planning-center visits sets a precedent other brokers must match or publicly refuse, while buyers like those approaching Tapestri shift demand toward less scrupulous sources.
Third-order effects
- If prosecutions proceed on this evidence, expect structural divergence: states where clinic surveillance becomes de facto law enforcement outsourcing versus platforms and brokers building deletion and non-sale policies as liability shields — with enforcement of those pledges, per the Google Maps findings, the open question.
The trend: Abortion access is becoming a test case for whether commercial and ad-hoc surveillance data can be repurposed as criminal evidence, forcing every layer of the location-data supply chain to pick a policy.