Amid news of the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion indicating the possible overturn of Roe v. Wade, Republican officials nationwide have threatened to end abortion access in their respective states. Many have even introduced legislation banning travel out of state for abortions. As a result, Democrats have called on companies like Google to stop collecting and retaining location data that can be used to identify and track women who obtain abortions, CNN reported.
The Democratic elected officials expressing concern noted that the overturning of Roe v. Wade would result in strict limits or bans on abortion in several states. "Republicans in Congress are already discussing passing a law criminalizing abortion in all 50 states, putting the government in control of women's bodies,” the officials said.
“We believe that abortion is health care. We will fight tooth and nail to ensure that it remains recognized as a fundamental right, and that all people in the United States have control over their own bodies,” at least 40 Democrats wrote Tuesday in a letter sent to Google CEO Sundar Pichai. The group was led by Sen. Ron Wyden and Rep. Anna Eshoo.
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"We are concerned that, in a world in which abortion could be made illegal, Google's current practice of collecting and retaining extensive records of cell phone location data will allow it to become a tool for far-right extremists looking to crack down on people seeking reproductive health care. That's because Google stores historical location information about hundreds of millions of smartphone users, which it routinely shares with government agencies,” the letter continued.
According to Business Insider, Google received 11,554 geofence requests in 2020, a 37.6% increase since 2019. Civil rights groups have frequently urged Pichai to reject such requests, as they have often focused on social activism, including Black Lives Matter protests.
The letter addressed this concern by bringing up the issue of geofence warrants, a technique used by law enforcement agencies to request tech companies to turn over all data on devices that have passed through a certain area during a certain period. These warrants have been issued to track Black Lives Matter protesters and to investigate robberies.
If Google continues to hand over such data, these warrants can be used by law enforcement officials should Roe v. Wade be overturned.
“If abortion is made illegal by the far-right Supreme Court and Republican lawmakers, it is inevitable that right-wing prosecutors will obtain legal warrants to hunt down, prosecute and jail women for obtaining critical reproductive health care,” the lawmakers wrote. “The only way to protect your customers’ location data from such outrageous government surveillance is to not keep it in the first place.”
The lawmakers also drew a distinction between Google and Apple in the letter, noting that Apple users are more protected. “Apple has shown that it is not necessary for smartphone companies to retain invasive tracking databases of their customers’ locations. Google’s intentional choice to do so is creating a new digital divide, in which privacy and security are made a luxury. Americans who can afford an iPhone have greater privacy from government surveillance of their movements than the tens of millions Americans using Android devices.”
This letter follows another that 16 Democrats signed last week addressed to Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan, CNBC reported. That letter also urged the agency to protect data privacy for those seeking reproductive healthcare.