For Immediate Release
S.T.O.P. Welcomes Congressional Call For Google To Delete Location Data
Civil rights group joins Democratic Senators in calling on google to prevent location data from being misused by police in advance of the repeal of Roe v. Wade and expanded abortion surveillance.
(New York, NY, 5/24/2022) - Today, the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.), a New York-based privacy and civil rights group, welcomes a letter from 40 Democratic senators and representatives, calling on Google to delete individualize location data that police can use to enforce abortion bans. The letter noted that if Google deleted individual location records, keeping only aggregate data, that the search giant would be unable to comply when served with geofence warrants, a court order that allows police to force google to identify every user in a specified area, such as an abortion clinic.
SEE: AP News - Democrats ask Google to protect abortion-patient privacy
https://apnews.com/article/abortion-technology-health-patient-privacy-f5d03037cec832160c450d24b026701d
S.T.O.P - Geolocation Tracking Ban
https://www.stopspying.org/location-tracking
“Google has a simple choice: delete the data or become complicit in criminalizing abortion,” said Surveillance Technology Oversight Project Executive Director Albert Fox Cahn. “It’s not enough for tech firms to say they’re pro-choice, they have to stop collecting data that puts pregnant people at risk. There’s no way for Texas to station state police at every out-of-state abortion clinic, but with data from Google and other companies, they don’t need to. If tech giants don’t act soon, we’ll see pregnant people seeking abortion care out of state, only to come home to an arrest warrant.”
Earlier today, the civil rights group released The Handmaid’s Trail: Abortion Surveillance After Roe, detailing the threat digital surveillance will pose to abortion seekers after the repeal of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. The report finds that pregnant people and abortion seekers are already being prosecuted using electronic surveillance, including their search history, location data, and social media content. But the report warns that this threat is likely to dramatically accelerate in the months and years following Roe’s repeal, targeting abortion care nationwide.
SEE: Report – The Handmaid’s Trail: Abortion Surveillance After Roe
www.stopspying.org/handmaids-trail
SEE: S.T.O.P. Releases Report On Abortion Surveillance After Roe
https://www.stopspying.org/latest-news/2022/5/24/stop-releases-report-on-abortion-surveillance-after-roe
Earlier in the month, the civil rights group welcomed the support of Reform Government Surveillance (RGS), coalition of leading technology firms (including Google) in calling for passage of New York’s Reverse Location Search Prohibition Act, which would completely ban geofence warrants, keyword warrants, and police purchases of such data. Since 2018, geofence warrants have quickly grown to be issued thousands of times a year, with each warrant potentially collecting data on every person in an area as large as a city. New York’s Reverse Location Search Prohibition Act would be the first in the country to ban geofence warrants.
S.T.O.P. Welcomes Tech Firms’ Support For NY Geofence Warrant Ban
https://www.stopspying.org/latest-news/2022/5/11/stop-welcomes-tech-firms-support-for-ny-geofence-warrant-ban
Reform Government Surveillance - RGS urges adoption of New York’s Reverse Location Search Prohibition Act
https://www.reformgovernmentsurveillance.com/rgs-urges-adoption-of-new-yorks-reverse-location-search-prohibition-act/
Cahn continued, “Soon, police will be able to use geofence warrants to identify nearly everyone visiting an abortion clinic in America. Even with abortion protected in New York, pregnant people coming from out of state to find abortion care are at risk. And the threat will only grow if federal anti-abortion restrictions expand. Geofence warrants are a uniquely powerful way to track pregnant people, and the practice must be outlawed. If New York truly wants to protect reproductive rights, we can’t allow anti-abortion surveillance.”
SEE: Protocol - New York lawmakers want to outlaw geofence warrants as protests grow
https://www.protocol.com/new-york-lawmakers-want-to-outlaw-geofence-warrants
Time - How a Digital Abortion Footprint Could Lead to Criminal Charges—And What Congress Can Do About It
https://time.com/6175194/digital-data-abortion-congress/
The Surveillance Technology Oversight Project is a non-profit advocacy organization and legal services provider. S.T.O.P. litigates and advocates for privacy, fighting excessive local and state-level surveillance. Our work highlights the discriminatory impact of surveillance on Muslim Americans, immigrants, and communities of color.
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CONTACT: S.T.O.P. Executive Director Albert Fox Cahn
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