Google Asked To Stop Collecting Unnecessary Location Data, Including Visits To Abortion Clinics

JAKARTA – A group of more than 40 US Congressmen from the Democratic Party has asked Google to stop collecting and storing "unnecessary" location data. They fear it could be used to identify and prosecute the person who had the abortion.

The request was made in a letter sent to Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Tuesday, May 24 by members of the House and Senate, led by Senator Ron Wyden and including representatives of well-known progressives such as Ayanna Pressley, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Alexandria Ocasio. - Cortez.

"We believe that abortion is health care," the letter said. “We will fight tooth and nail to ensure that it remains recognized as a fundamental right, and that everyone in the United States has control over their own bodies. We therefore fear that, in a world where abortion could be made illegal, Google's current practice of collecting and keeping extensive records of cell phone location data will allow it to become a tool for far-right extremists who want to crack down on people seeking reproductive health care."

The letter specifically refers to a geofence warrant, a controversial technique in which law enforcement agencies request that technology companies provide data on all phones that pass through a geo-defined area within a certain period of time.

Geofence warrants have been criticized for their use in protester investigations during Black Lives Matter rallies, and their use has increased dramatically in recent years. Data released by Google shows a marked spike from 2018 to 2020.

Crucially, geofence data were only available after a court-issued warrant — but with more than 20 states preparing to outlaw abortion as soon as Roe v. Wade's annulled, the more it makes sense that such a warrant could be used to target anyone visiting an abortion site.

To prevent this from happening, the signatories to the letter asked Google to redesign its location data collection practices so that device data is only collected at an aggregate level, not on an individual basis, and is not retained by the company for longer than necessary.

The letter also compared Google's location data policies with Apple's decision to minimize the storage of location data, stating that "Americans who can afford iPhones have more privacy from government surveillance of their movements than the tens of millions of Americans who use Android devices."

Reproductive rights advocates have been wary since a draft opinion leaked on May 3 showing that the Supreme Court intended to overturn Roe v. Wade. In particular, many have raised concerns that digital surveillance technology could be used to prosecute people seeking abortions.

On the same day that the Democratic letter was released, the New York-based Surveillance Technology Project published a report on the many ways people seeking abortions can be tracked, citing a number of existing cases where data from internet search history or credit card transactions have been used against people. -people who have terminated a pregnancy.

In a statement, Albert Fox Cahn, executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, welcomed the Congressional letter, saying that Google should delete its location data or be "complicit in the criminalization of abortion."

"It's not enough for tech companies to say they're pro-choice, they need to stop collecting data that harms pregnant people," Cahn said. “It's impossible for Texas to have state police in every out-of-state abortion clinic, but with data from Google and other companies, they don't have to. If the tech giants don't act soon, we'll see pregnant people seek out-of-state abortion care, only to come home with arrest warrants."

So far, Google has not made a public response to the letter; the company did not immediately respond to inquiries sent by The Verge.