See what’s clicking on FoxBusiness.com.
After the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Google is strengthening protections for tracking users’ locations, which could prompt legal challenges from states banning abortion.
Overturning Roe v. Wade could make abortion illegal in more than a dozen states, raising the specter that records of people’s locations, text messages, searches and emails could be used in prosecutions against abortion procedures or even for medical care sought. in case of spontaneous abortion.
A smartphone logo is seen in this photo illustration of popular location tracking app Google Map. | Getty Images
In a blog post Friday, Google outlined its new policies designed to protect users’ privacy when they visit “sensitive” health-related locations, including abortion clinics and domestic violence shelters.
Google will automatically scrub the location information of users who visit abortion clinics.
“We’re committed to providing robust privacy protections to the people who use our products, and we’ll continue to look for new ways to strengthen and improve those protections,” Google’s senior vice president of core systems and engagement, Jen Fitzpatrick, wrote in a blog post
DEMOCRATS RAISE $80 MILLION AFTER SUPREME COURT DECISION ON ABORTION
In addition to automatically deleting visits to abortion clinics, Google also cites counseling centers, fertility centers, addiction treatment facilities, weight loss clinics and cosmetic surgery clinics as other destinations that will be deleted from users’ location history.
Users have always had the option to edit their location stories themselves, but Google will proactively do it for them as an added level of privacy.
“Today we are announcing that if our systems identify that someone has visited any of these locations, we will delete those records from Location History shortly after the visit. This change will take effect in the coming weeks.” Fitzpatrick continued.
Google logo. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File/AP Newsroom)
Google will also update its app store protocols on data privacy “to give people more information about how apps collect, share and protect their data.”
THE ABORTION BATTLE IS NOW MOVING TO THE 50 STATES
The pledge comes amid escalating pressure on big tech companies to do more to protect the trove of sensitive personal information across their digital services and products from government authorities and other outsiders.
Like other tech companies, Google receives thousands of government requests each year for digital user records as part of investigations into wrongdoing. According to the company’s internal transparency report, it received nearly 150,000 requests for user data from law enforcement in the first half of 2021 and provided information in 78 percent of cases.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT FOX BUSINESS
“We remain committed to protecting our users against unlawful government data requests and will continue to oppose requests that are overly broad or otherwise legally objectionable,” the blog post said.
Add Comment