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After last month’s Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision protecting the legal right to abortion, many people looked back to the early 1970s for what life would have been like without the long-standing precedent.
But access to abortion is much different in 2022, thanks in large part to technological innovations, including safe drugs used to induce abortion.
There are also new digital tools that can connect people with medical providers, friends, and other resources, making it much easier to find information about abortion access.
With the reversal of the historic decision, many people are asking for the first time whether the digital tools they use could put them or their loved ones at risk. Because the US and most states lack digital privacy laws to protect user information, it often falls on companies and consumers themselves to protect their privacy online.
Here’s what you need to know about how digital tools collect data, how prosecutors may seek to use such information in abortion and pregnancy-related cases, and how consumers can be more careful about the data they share.
How Digital Tools Collect and Use Your Data
Digital tools may collect your data in a variety of ways, which can usually be found in their privacy policies. These often dense legal documents will tell you what types of data a tool will collect about you (name, email, location, etc.) and how it will be used.
Users can search for words like “sell” and “affiliates” to find out how and why their information may be shared with services other than the one they use directly, as The Washington Post recently suggested in a guide to these documents.
Some web pages may track your Internet activities using cookies or small pieces of code that help advertisers target you with information based on your past activity.
Apps on your phone may also collect location information, depending on whether you have allowed them in your settings.
How to protect your information
The best way to protect any kind of information on the Internet is to minimize the amount that is out there. Some providers have recently taken steps to help consumers minimize their digital footprint when it comes to reproductive health care.
Google said last week that it would work to quickly delete location information about users who visit abortion clinics or other medical sites. It will also make it easier for users to delete multiple menstrual data logs from the Fitbit app.
Cycle tracking app Flo recently added an anonymous mode that allows users to log their menstrual cycles without providing their names or contact information.
But it’s still largely up to users to protect their own information. Here are some ways consumers can protect the information they share online, whether it’s health-related or not, based on advice from digital privacy experts like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Digital Defense Fund:
- Use an encrypted messaging app like Signal to communicate about sensitive topics and set messages to self-delete after a certain amount of time. This means getting other people in your network on the same app.
Enabling disappearing messages in an encrypted messaging app like Signal can help protect your conversations.
Lauren Feiner | Screenshot
- Turn off or restrict location services on your phone only for the apps you need while you’re using them.
- If you are visiting a sensitive location, consider turning off your phone or leaving it at home.
- When searching online for sensitive topics, use a search engine and browser that minimizes data collectionlike DuckDuckGo, Firefox or Brave.
- Use it private browsing section so your website history will not be saved automatically.
- Use it virtual private network to hide your device’s IP address.
- Disable your mobile advertising ID which may be used by third-party marketers to track and profile you. EFF has step-by-step instructions on how to do this on Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS.
Turn off app tracking on iOS for extra privacy.
Lauren Feiner | Screenshot
- Set a secondary email and phone numberfor example via Google Voice, for sensitive topics.
How the data can be used in court
The risks of prosecutors using digital tools in abortion or pregnancy loss cases are not theoretical.
In at least two high-profile cases in recent years, prosecutors have pointed to Internet searches for abortion pills and digital messages between loved ones to illustrate the intent of women accused of harming babies they said they miscarried.
These cases show that even tools not directly related to reproductive health care, such as cycle tracking apps, can become evidence in a miscarriage or pregnancy loss case.
It’s also important to know that law enforcement may try to get your information without having access to your devices. Prosecutors can seek court orders for companies whose services you use or loved ones you’ve communicated with to learn about your digital whereabouts if they become the subject of a legal case.
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