To protect personal information from companies that sell data, some individuals are relying on privacy guides instead of government regulation or indu

Yes, Phones Can Reveal if Someone Gets an Abortion

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2022-05-15 11:00:06

To protect personal information from companies that sell data, some individuals are relying on privacy guides instead of government regulation or industry transparency

A leaked memo has revealed that the Supreme Court plans to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision. If this does occur, so-called trigger laws already passed in 13 states—along with other laws on the way—would immediately prohibit abortions in a large portion of the country. And one of the ways courts could find people to prosecute is to use the data that our phones produce every day.

A smartphone can be a massive storehouse of personal information. Most people carry one at all times, automatically registering their daily activities through Internet searches, browsing, location data, payment history, phone records, chat apps, contact lists and calendars. “Your phone knows more about you than you do. There is data on your phone that could show how many times a day you go to the bathroom, things that are incredibly intimate,” says Evan Greer, director of the nonprofit digital rights organization Fight for the Future. “If, because of these draconian laws, basic activities like seeking or providing reproductive health care become criminalized in a manner that would allow law enforcement to get an actual warrant for your device, it could reveal incredibly sensitive information—not just about that person but about everyone that they communicate with.”

Even with Roe intact, this type of digital footprint has already been used to prosecute those seeking to terminate pregnancies. In 2017 a woman in Mississippi experienced an at-home pregnancy loss. A grand jury later indicted her for second-degree murder, based in part on her online search history—which recorded that she had looked up how to induce a miscarriage. (The charge against the woman was eventually dropped.)

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