Rep. Sara Jacobs Bill to Seeks to Protect Women’s Privacy in the post-Roe Era
San Diego’s Congressional representative has introduced the “My Body, My Data" Act, aiming to protect the privacy and safety of people seeking reproductive health care. A companion bill has been introduced by Senators Mazie K. Hirono and Ron Wyden.
The bill sets up a new national standard to protect personal reproductive health data, enforced by the Federal Trade Commission.
One of the expected consequences of the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe V Wade is the weaponization of personal data to seek out women seeking abortions and/or the health care practitioners administering them.
They are serious concerns that data collected by apps and websites could be used to target or arrest people. This includes location data, search histories, and reproductive health data collected by menstruation, ovulation, and pregnancy tracking apps each month.
Recent reporting has also revealed the prevalence with which consumers’ personal reproductive health information is disclosed and monetized.
From Vice.com:
With this aggregated location data available to anyone on the open market, customers could include anti-abortion vigilantes as well. Anti-abortion groups are already fairly adept at using novel technology for their goals.
In 2016, an advertising CEO who worked with anti-abortion and Christian groups sent targeted advertisements to women sitting in Planned Parenthood clinics in an attempt to change their decision around getting an abortion. The sale of the location data raises questions around why companies are selling data based on abortion clinics specifically, and whether they should introduce more safeguards around the purchase of that information, if be selling it at all.
The legislation seeks to change the status quo by:
limiting collection of personal reproductive and sexual health data that can be collected, retained, used or disclosed to only what is needed to deliver a product or service;
protecting personal data collected by entities not currently covered under HIPAA, including data collected by apps, cell phones and search engines;
requiring regulated entities to develop and share a privacy policy outlining how they collect, retain, use and disclose personal reproductive health information;
creating a private right of action to allow individuals to hold regulated entities accountable for violations;
providing additional consumer protections, including the right to access or delete personal data; and
allowing states to provide further protection for reproductive and sexual health privacy.
Zealots in the anti-abortion movement are not content to let states legislate. The intent of this movement goes beyond the act of choosing to terminate a pregnancy,
From Ms Magazine:
Anti-abortion governments and private entities are already using cutting-edge digital technologies to surveil women’s search history, location data, messages, online purchases and social media activities by using geofencing, keyword warrants, big data and more.
Last month, the New York-based privacy group Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.) released a report detailing the digital surveillance threats facing pregnant women who seek abortion information and services, and how these threats could escalate dramatically if the Supreme Court repeals abortion rights and states criminalize abortion.
“Police, prosecutors and private anti-abortion litigants will weaponize existing American surveillance infrastructure to target pregnant people and use their health data against them in a court of law,” according to the report, titled “Pregnancy Panopticon: Abortion Surveillance After Roe.” “This isn’t speculation—it’s already happening.”
Since Roe was decided in 1973 upwards of 1,200 women have been arrested for pregnancy outcomes like stillbirth and miscarriages post-Roe.
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The My Body, My Data act has been endorsed by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, NARAL Pro-Choice America, URGE: Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity, and the National Partnership for Women & Families
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has published a guide with detailed security tips for people seeking an abortion. Reading it makes me realize just how much “freedom” we’re giving up every day as a consequence for all the devices and apps we use.
Email me at WritetoDougPorter@Gmail.com