After the US Supreme Court’s decision on Friday to revoke the federal right to abortion, elected officials and associations have called on major technology platforms to better protect personal data. If the latter are tracked by the giants of the Net to be able to sell advertisements, they also remain accessible to the authorities provided with a mandate: the States prohibiting the IVG could use them to supervise its inhabitants.
Of the digital traces like a simple search for family planning on Google or a discussion with a pregnant friend on Facebook could be used against women who want an abortion in some US states. This is because these companies track every movement of its users to be able to sell targeted and personalized advertising space to advertisers.
In an open letter to the head of Google Sundar Pichai, 42 elected Democrats estimated at the end of May that the Internet risks becoming a ” tool for extremists who want to suppress people seeking reproductive health care “. The responsibility for protecting sensitive data should fall to the authorities, remind these elected officials.
Even before the Supreme Court’s decision, laws had been passed, notably in Texas, to encourage ordinary citizens to launch lawsuits against women suspected of having abortedas well as against people who helped them.
To protect these people, a Democratic MP tabled a bill in Congress in early June which would, in particular, oblige companies to collect only strictly necessary health information.
California and some US states have also passed laws in recent years to better regulate privacy of personal information onlinebut Congress can’t agree on a federal law.
►Also read: Right to abortion: “For the first time, the Supreme Court takes away an established right”