Law enforcement and civil litigants may turn to companies to gain access to data that could help prove that a person sought, received, aided or provided an abortion. (Oscar Wong / Getty Images) |
BY JENNIFER WEISS-WOLF and ALEXANDRA REEVE GIVENS | In the immediate aftermath of the Supreme Court’s leaked decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a wave of dystopian warnings flooded the internet. Women were urged to erase their digital footprints, delete period tracking apps, and communicate in code. A year later, myriad of digital communications have been used to fuel abortion-related prosecutions and lawsuits—from mother-daughter exchanges on Facebook to private text messages among friends.
The Center of Democracy & Technology (CDT) released a set of best practices last week for companies to adopt in order to better protect the privacy and safety of people seeking, providing or otherwise supporting abortion care.
The impact of this work is deep. In addition to states further restricting abortion, many have said they would prosecute abortion providers, insurers and even patients themselves. Some states also allow private civil actions. This law has enabled an ex-husband to sue his wife’s friends for allegedly helping her to obtain abortion medication. In our post-Dobbs society, it seems increasingly likely that law enforcement and civil litigants would turn to companies to access data that could help prove a person sought, received, aided or provided an abortion.
Data reveals sensitive information about a person’s health and healthcare choices. A person’s online searches, purchases, browsing history, texts and emails, and the location data captured by their phone might all reveal whether a person was pregnant and is now no longer pregnant. The companies that collect this type of information are not health companies, yet they hold extremely sensitive information about our health. They must be responsible for carefully assessing and limiting the personal information they collect, store and share.
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