As anti-abortion state laws kick in, law enforcement could force tech companies to give up users' search history, geolocation, and other pregnancy-related data

The technology industry is bracing for the uncomfortable possibility of having to hand over pregnancy-related data to law enforcement …

Reuters 2022-06-26 Jeffrey Dastin

Context & Ripple Effects

The risk had been building since Texas’ law put on-demand ride providers and tech platforms in the frame for clinic-trip liability and user-data subpoenas. By May, related coverage had identified location and search records as potential evidence in abortion-related prosecutions after a reversal of Roe.

This report turns that earlier legal scenario into an operational issue for companies that retain search, location, and other pregnancy-related information: state-law enforcement can seek data already held in ordinary digital services.

First-order effects

Tech companies holding search histories, geolocation, or related records face law-enforcement demands tied to pregnancy and abortion investigations.
Users’ routine digital records become potential investigative material in states whose anti-abortion laws take effect.

Second-order effects

On-demand ride providers face renewed exposure where records connected to clinic trips can be sought alongside the liability concerns raised by Texas’ law.
Location-data businesses gain a more sensitive enforcement-facing customer base; related coverage later reported interest in device data identifying abortion-clinic visitors.

Third-order effects

If state enforcement continues to rely on retained digital records, abortion policy becomes a durable privacy-governance issue for platforms, data brokers, and mobility services rather than only a question of medical providers.
The pattern shifts competition toward minimizing or tightly controlling sensitive data retention, because data collected for consumer services can acquire criminal-investigation value.

The trend: State-level abortion enforcement is expanding the legal and commercial stakes of consumer data retention, especially for location, search, and mobility records.

Discussion

@jkbibliophile Jessica Khoury on x
Delete your period tracking apps today.
@evacide Eva on x
The difference between now and the last time that abortion was illegal in the United States is that we live in an era of unprecedented digital surveillance.
@evacide Eva on x
If tech companies don't want to have their data turned into a dragnet against people seeking abortions and people providing abortion support, they need to stop collecting that data now. Don't have it for sale. Don't have it when a subpoena arrives.
@evacide Eva on x
Search data matters. Location data matters. Health data matters. Contact lists and friend lists matter. The contents of messages matter and so does the meta-data. If you work in tech, this is what you should be protecting right now.
@lydiadepillis Lydia DePillis on x
This is what it actually means to criminalize abortion. I am not sure America is prepared for the level of invasive policing that women are about to endure. https://www.newyorker.com/... via @jiatolentino https://twitter.com/...
@brettstoelker @brettstoelker on x
I know a lot of women who use period tracking apps are very concerned about their privacy with #RoeVWadeOverturned. Being the great majority use an iPhone, the Health app has an encrypted/offline tracker.⤵️ Sources: https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... https://support.apple.com/..…
@markruffalo Mark Ruffalo on x
Forget Big Brother. Big Patriarch is watching. “These companies need to think very long and hard about the ways in which their platforms will be weaponized to criminalize people looking to access abortion healthcare...and ensure that it doesn't happen.” https://www.theguardian.co…
@hypervisible @hypervisible on x
Despite growing calls “no major tech companies as of Friday afternoon had made public statements on how they will handle such data and respond to related law enforcement requests moving forward.” https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
@ccdhate @ccdhate on x
“These companies need to think very long and hard about the ways in which their platforms will be weaponized to criminalize people looking to access abortion healthcare, and they need to ensure that it doesn't happen” Our CEO @Imi_Ahmed. https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
@kevincollier Kevin Collier on x
Seeing more calls today to delete your period-tracking apps. But experts say that if you look at how states have already brought evidence in abortion-related cases, the *much* bigger concern is unsecured, unencrypted communications & stored search history. https://www.nbcnews.com…
@jamiejbartlett Jamie Bartlett on x
We build data collection systems for one reason - the law then changes and they are then used in new & unexpected ways. Time and again. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@clintsmithiii Clint Smith on x
“Both abortion and miscarriage currently occur more than a million times each year in America, and the two events are often clinically indistinguishable. As such, prohibition states will have a profoundly invasive interest in differentiating between them.” https://www.newyorker.c…
@hannahswiv Hannah Swithinbank on x
This is well worth reading, I think, to begin to get your head around the scale of harm that is likely to be done policing the overturning of legal abortion. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on x
Tech companies cannot to save you from unjust laws. The government can subpoena Uber for anyone who got a ride near an abortion clinic, Microsoft for anyone who emailed them or Google for anyone who used maps/search to get there. Don't use your phone if you're going to do this. h…
@mariafarrell Maria Farrell on x
Keep in mind that Roe v Wade was based on an already tenuous US constitutional right to privacy, THAT's why tech companies spout this milquetoast BS about protecting their own, already privileged employees while spying on vulnerable people and selling the data to law enforcement …
@ekp Ellen K. Pao on x
If you run a tech company but haven't examined your policies to make sure your data can't be used to harm your workers and customers, you need to prioritize it now before causing more harm. Context: laws against abortion, same-sex marriage, transphobia, xenophobia, racism, ... ht…
@lazerwalker @lazerwalker on x
A concrete reminder about period tracker data, as people are urging you to delete your apps: Apple Health data is safe from the threat model of the government demanding data from Apple in a PRISM-style secret order. IF AND ONLY IF you disable iCloud Backups of health data.
@doree Doree Shafrir on x
Yes delete your period app. But also don't arrange rides for people to get abortions on Facebook. Don't google “where to get an abortion” if you live in Texas. Don't go to a protest unmasked. The privacy violations that are coming go so much deeper than period apps.
@ziripena @ziripena on x
Did you know that Facebook will know that you are pregnant before you will? Tracking apps aren't the only way to know. This is why keeping our DATA private in all forms is important.
@sylviaviridian @sylviaviridian on x
To be clearer: your app data is not private. if your menstruation pattern is disrupted, and an app knows about it, prosecutors can use that as evidence against you in court https://twitter.com/...
@rakeshlobster Rakesh Agrawal on x
Don't capture the data. If you don't record it, you can't turn it over. Drop sensitive locations and searches. This hoarding mentality tech companies have can have bad real world consequences. https://twitter.com/...
@nameshiv @nameshiv on x
we all know how this is gonna play out, tech companies will be lining up to break bank off it in red states while issuing press releases about their deep belief in right to choose in blue ones https://twitter.com/...
@aclu @aclu on x
It's scary, but not a hypothetical threat. In 2017, an online search for abortion medication was used to charge a woman with second-degree murder. In 2015, a woman's text messages about ordering abortion medication contributed to her conviction. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ..…
@evan_greer Evan Greer on x
I do not want to see a single tech company say a goddamn thing about Dobbs unless it's that they're going to immediately stop lobbying against privacy laws, stop collecting sensitive data, encrypt messaging & refuse to comply w/ law enforcement requests targeting abortion seekers
@lauren_feiner Lauren Feiner on x
With Roe v. Wade overturned, tech cos could increasingly be forced by courts to hand over data in cases involving abortions or pregnancy loss — whether they want to or not. Some advocates say platforms can and should do more to protect that data. https://www.cnbc.com/...
@perkinsjanie Janie Perkins on x
Ladies of childbearing years. Please remove all references to menstruation from social media, period apps, calendars on your phones or computers. Buy a paper calendar if you can't remember when you last had a period and then HIDE the damn thing. We are officially living in hell. …
@can @can on x
The fact that most of this surveillance exists to serve shitty ads is the most depressing thing of it all. https://twitter.com/...
@fightfortheftr @fightfortheftr on x
THREAD: in wake of Roe repeal, lawmakers and tech companies must take immediate steps to protect abortion patients, providers, and activists from surveillance and censorship. Or, full statement: https://www.fightforthefuture.org/ ...
@f_kaltheuner Frederike Kaltheuner on x
Something is sinking in today: Privacy is a time-shifted risk, meaning - what is convenient and risk-free today, can have devastating consequences tomorrow. We should design the technologies we depend on in ways that protect us - no matter the political climate. @hrw https://twit…
@bwjones Bryan William Jones on x
I know physicians (radiologists) who are no longer going to note the presence of IUDs on radiology reports because of todays SCOTUS decision. https://twitter.com/...
@jsrailton John Scott-Railton on x
Tech worker: take the blinders off about the surveillance & tracking technologies you're helping to build. And step away. The writing is on the wall. And please, read @evacide's full thread. https://twitter.com/...
@ncweaver Nicholas Weaver on x
Don't keep it. Period. Because there will be warrants and subpoenas if the data exists. And ideally, don't even collect it. Because there will be prospective warrants and subpoenas for when the data comes in. https://twitter.com/...
@geoffreyfowler Geoffrey A. Fowler on x
“I don't care about privacy. I have nothing to hide.” Today's Roe ruling is a scary reminder that our era of near-complete digital surveillance has serious consequences well beyond annoying ads. Any data a company collects, the government can grab, too. https://www.washingtonpost…

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