Our lack of digital privacy rights might soon lead to terrifying outcomes for people seeking or providing reproductive health care, tiffanycli writes.
Reproductive privacy is in danger, and our current lack of digital privacy protections makes this problem even worse. A lot of data that companies collect on consumers can be used against people if state governments choose to prosecute individuals seeking or providing abortions.Location data can show if a person visited an abortion clinic. Payment data can show if someone paid for a procedure. Messaging data can show if an individual talked to friends about getting an abortion.
Now that Roe v. Wade has fallen, states that choose to criminalize abortion can start buying and subpoenaing consumer data to prosecute people who get an abortion, provide an abortion or even aid someone else in obtaining an abortion. In post-Roe America, your cellphone is now a reproductive privacy risk., including those that track periods, fertility and pregnancy.
To protect both digital and medical privacy, including as it relates to reproductive health, Congress should move on the, the bipartisan federal privacy bill introduced in the House in June. Among other things, the act would provide a cohesive national framework for privacy, creating guardrails on the collection and usage of data and holding companies to higher standards of data minimization and data security.
And tech companies, especially those in health tech, need to build in protections to protect their customers, including supporting encryption, and instituting data minimization principles and legal processes for responding to government requests for data. For people who live in states where even helping someone get an abortion may soon be a crime, the ability to use encrypted messaging will be essential to protecting sensitive conversations.
Data minimization principles include simply collecting less data as well as storing it for shorter lengths of time. Companies can also use stronger privacy-enhancing technologies and make sure to shore up their cybersecurity so that data does not fall into the hands of the wrong people. Finally, companies need to review their policies and processes for responding to government requests for data, to figure out how to best protect their users.
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