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Everything you do online is now tracked. This information is about to become even more sensitive if you are looking for an abortion in the United States.
The Supreme Court ruling on Friday overturned the remarkable abortion rights ruling Rowe vs. Wade means that 13 states can ban abortions within a month, and more may follow.
A Google search for a reproductive health clinic, an online order for an abortion pill, a ping for a doctor’s office location, and a text message to consider terminating a pregnancy can become sources of evidence. People are constantly sharing data about their fertility online, say advocates of privacy – even if they don’t realize it. Other obvious sources of health data include period tracking applications and digital hospital registration forms.
“People should not be held responsible for doing everything perfectly when they are in a stressful situation to protect their own privacy,” said India McKinney, director of federal affairs at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “Confidentiality is a fundamental human right and must be protected by law and the statute.
Here are the basic steps anyone can take to protect personal information when weighing an abortion.
Your biggest risk factor is other people. Many cases against people who have had an abortion start with people who have been told to report them to law enforcement, according to Farah Diaz-Telo, senior adviser and legal director of If / When / How, a non-profit reproductive organization. justice.
“The biggest vector for criminalization is the health care system,” Diaz-Telo said. The group has studied cases against people who have had abortions since 2000 and has tracked how the process usually happens.
When someone goes to a health care provider with medical problems related to abortion, medical professionals can report it to the police, who can then seize their phones or computers. With a device in hand, the police can simply look directly through the browser and text messages.
Diaz-Tello recommends that you be reasonable about the information you share in the emergency department or doctor’s office. Spontaneous abortion and self-administered abortion with the help of pills will look identical to most healthcare providers and will require the same treatment, she said.
Limit who you are talking to in your own life, including friends or family. If you are threatened by an intimate partner, follow these steps to protect your communications and devices.
Restore your digital life during or after a violent relationship
Chat in a secure, encrypted messaging application
When discussing your situation, use personal messaging applications that use encryption. Apple’s iMessage, WhatsApp, and Meta’s Signal are end-to-end encrypted by default, which means that messages are hidden from everyone except the sender and recipient.
The signal may be the safest option. Apple has the key to decrypt iMessages, which is archived using the iCloud service, and law enforcement can ask it to do so. WhatsApp, for its part, leaves room in its privacy policy to share data with the parent company of Facebook Meta. Depending on what data it shares, this can lead to privacy issues.
Keep in mind that someone with access to your physical device can see your messages, whether they are encrypted or not. Do not hand over your phone or laptop to law enforcement without a warrant, privacy experts advise, and turn off biometric authentication such as Face or Touch ID if you are worried that someone will pressure you or force you to unlock them. Make sure your phone, tablet, and computers require a password or password to use them. Avoid wearing any wearable health monitoring devices while managing your health.
Surf the internet safely
There are two ways your browsing activity can put you at risk: someone seeing it on your device and someone getting it from technology or advertising companies, said Eric Rescorla, chief technology officer at Firefox.
Always use incognito or private browsing mode in your browser to avoid leaving a mark on your own devices. When choosing a browser, choose Safari, Firefox or Brave, all of which have stable privacy features. Make sure all cross-site tracking options are turned on, and use a search engine like DuckDuckGo or Brave instead of Google.
To minimize what is recorded for your browsing, use Apple’s VPN or iCloud Private Relay, which acts as a more secure VPN. Avoid using third-party applications for searches. If you want an extra layer of protection, use Tor Browser, a tool for anonymous Internet use that hides both your identity and your location, Rescorla said.
If you’re still using Google, make sure you’re signed out of your account and that you’ve included the disks on all of your privacy settings. Confirm that all abortion results are genuine, not fake pregnancy crisis centers. If it’s an ad from Google, there should be a small line above the site name that says “Provides abortions” or “Does not provide abortions.” The National Abortion Federation has a list of verified providers on its website.
Turn off location sharing or leave your phone
Some apps collect your location day and night and share it with third parties, including data brokers, who sell this data to anyone who wants to pay. To turn off location sharing on an Apple device, go to Settings → Privacy → Location Services and switch the slider to gray. (Note that this will cause location-dependent apps such as Uber or maps to stop working.) On an Android device, go to Settings → Location and turn the switch to the off position.
Unfortunately, disabling location sharing will not prevent your mobile carrier from collecting your location. Jennifer Granick, a U.S. Civil Liberties Union surveillance and cybersecurity adviser, said the Faraday bag, which blocks electromagnetic fields, can help when you want to keep your phone on, but prevent location tracking by providers. of services.
To really hide your location, the best thing to do is leave your phone at home or turn it off completely, McKinney said. You can also use a temporary telephone for combustion. Do not add any of your accounts, connect to your home WiFi or turn on Bluetooth, she added.
Maximize your privacy settings
To make sure your phone or social media sites collect as little data as possible, lock your privacy settings. You can find a list of the biggest application and device options in our Privacy Reset Guide.
A guide to any privacy settings you need to change now
Avoid period tracking applications
Relying on any application with sensitive medical information is a risk, especially if it is not covered by HIPAA requirements. Each period tracking application has different privacy practices, and understanding the nuances can be difficult. A password-protected spreadsheet or paper calendar will serve you better.
If you decide to delete your application for tracking the period, consider sending a request for deletion of data, said Alan Butler, CEO and President of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. Some companies only comply with requests from people in California because of the U.S. Privacy Act, but others accept requests from anywhere.
“The power of the state and federal governments to receive data right now is incredibly broad,” Butler said. “We have not seen new restrictions on access to government data for decades, which means that its laws have become weaker with the development of technology.”
Limit where you share health information
Your dentist and even your training instructor can give you forms asking if you are pregnant. If you are not comfortable sharing, say so and keep this conversation for a doctor you trust.
The software for registration in your doctor’s office may have holes for confidentiality, reports The Washington Post. A consent form from the manufacturer of the Phreesia registration software, for example, gives him permission to use your marketing data. Select “no” in all the data sharing prompts you see.
Encourage health and insurance providers to do what they do with your information, such as the date of the last period or pregnancy status. Where is it recorded and stored, is it encrypted and how long do they keep it? Review each document you sign to see if you’re waiving rights to your information or giving permission to share it with others.
Be aware of physical surveillance technology
In some cases, law enforcement agencies can retrieve data from license plate readers or face recognition software systems that are strategically set up across state borders, ACLU’s Granick said. If you need reproductive services, you may want to consider alternative modes of transport to driving your own car, for example.
“People don’t have to give up, even though it’s difficult and can seem like a lot,” Granik said. “People need to take advantage of what they can do while pushing for more.”
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