The Dobbs decision has far-reaching implications, for all of us.
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Late last month, the Supreme Court passed down its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, overturning almost fifty years of constitutional protections for reproductive health embodied in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey. In response, Alexandra Reeve Givens, President & CEO of the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT), said, “This ruling is devastating for the privacy rights of people seeking reproductive care. Historically, we have looked to the court to expand and protect our rights—not take them away.”
As reproductive rights organizations are focused on the critical work of directly serving people in need of reproductive health care, CDT is focusing on tech policy: ways to protect the data and access to information of people seeking — and providing — reproductive care.
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Post-Dobbs, a number of state laws have gone into effect limiting or eliminating the ability to access and provide abortion services. States that want to vigorously enforce these laws now have a strong incentive to seek all kinds of data, including location and health data, about people who could potentially violate those laws. Such a regime will lead to unprecedented monitoring of people engaged in some of the most intimate activities and choices that a person can make. Health care-related monitoring can reach a variety of actors for a variety of purposes: medical providers who perform abortions, those seeking abortions, those who help people seeking abortions, people who have miscarriages or other reproductive health issues, people engaged in family planning, and those who try to provide basic information and education about services.
In this new environment, companies’ data practices, gaps in laws like HIPAA, and loopholes that law enforcement exploits to circumvent warrant requirements need fixing. Any company that collects data can take action now to protect their users by limiting the collection, retention, sale, transfer, and other uses of information that can be used to generate insights or predictions about a person’s reproductive health. Companies can also encrypt data both internally and for users, and ensure that content moderation policies, practices, and algorithms support access to information related to reproductive health. Finally, companies can and should adopt clear and consistent standards for refusing overbroad requests by law enforcement, notify users of such requests in a timely way, and publicly report the number of these requests.
As a direct result of the Dobbs decision, CDT has created a dedicated task force to address the tech policy issues that are now even more prominent than before. The Task Force on Protecting Reproductive Health Information will address data protection and content moderation issues, and function as a discussion forum. CDT and Task Force members will be able to bring issues of concern to the group regarding reproductive health care-related civil and criminal matters, and questions of content moderation.
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READ
Press Release | Supreme Court Abortion Ruling “Devastating” for Women’s Right to Privacy
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READ
Proposed Consumer Privacy Framework for Health Data
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READ
Report | Legal Loopholes and Data for Dollars: How Law Enforcement and Intelligence Agencies Are Buying Your Data from Brokers
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READ
Following the Overturning of Roe v Wade, Action is Needed to Protect Health Data
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Unfortunately, we know that criminalizing abortion will have outsized impact on the rights of communities already disproportionately impacted by policing and data discrimination, including people of color, LGBTQIA+ people, and disabled people. Those who support reproductive rights must come together to protect the privacy of those seeking and providing reproductive care.
CDT has spent years advocating for you. We have been at the forefront of efforts to improve commercial data practices, and to advocate for reasonable limits on law enforcement access to data. Partners like you have been indispensable in this work. If you are not yet engaged and want to learn more, please reply to this email to join the conversation. You can help put democracy and human rights at the center of the digital revolution.
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