How your digital footprint interacts with the overturning of Roe v. Wade
The overturning of Roe v Wade led to eight states immediately implementing total or near total abortion bans and four more states have followed in the months after. Many have since voiced serious concerns about how one’s digital footprint could lead to a criminal conviction when deciding to get an abortion despite the new laws in some states.
But how can a digital footprint endanger people with unwanted pregnancies? Pregnant people wishing for abortion most often leave digital traces online that could point to a potential abortion or wish for abortion. For example, when a person is searching for abortion clinics nearby or informing themselves about different forms of abortion. In states that have criminalized abortions, these digital footprints can be used by law enforcement agencies and even be used as criminal evidence as proven by the case of Latice Fisher (Lang, 2022). In 2017, Fisher was under suspicion of allegedly having killed her newborn baby right after giving birth, while she and her husband report the baby was suddenly stillborn in their home. In order to build a motive, investigators searched Fisher’s internet history and found that she had googled “Misoprostol”, an abortion pill. This led to Fisher to being indicted on a charge of second-degree murder, which if convicted, leads to an up to 40-year prison sentence (Rankin, 2020). While in Fisher’s case it may have been the right thing to check if her story was true, it shows that your digital footprint can be used to prove criminal intent or activity (by seeking an abortion) if you are unfortunate to live in a state denying you agency of your own body.
The worry of having your digital footprint be held against one in a criminal investigation when seeking abortions has led many people to delete period-tracking apps and also makes you think about how data monetization and trading can be problematic. Recent research shows that it is very easy for anti-abortion supporters to buy sensible location data about who visited an abortion clinic. While the data trading companies say that the data is anonymous, experts say it is still possible to reverse the anonymity if there is only few data about one specific abortion clinic (Lang, 2022).
So while there is not yet complete surveillance about people’s reproduction in the affected U.S. states, it sure could turn into a dystopian reality that is actually not that far away right now.
References
Lang, R. (2022, May 9). US-Abtreibungsrecht: Gefährliche Datenspuren von Schwangerschaftsabbrüchen. Netzpolitik.org. https://netzpolitik.org/2022/us-abtreibungsrecht-gefaehrliche-datenspuren-von-schwangerschaftsabbruechen/
Rankin, L. (2020, February 26). How an online search for abortion pills landed this woman in jail. Fast Company. https://www.fastcompany.com/90468030/how-an-online-search-for-abortion-pills-landed-this-woman-in-jail
Hi Victoria,
Very interesting political topic regarding the overturning of Roe vs. Wade in the US. I’ve followed this events closely a couple of months ago and I also saw articles being written that were warning women to delete certain tracking devices: such as apps that store GPS-data or even period-trackers. You’ve written an informative article outlining important parts of the (possible) problems and data-privacy issues that will arise. I would like to add that social media also plays a big role in the collection of sensitive data regarding woman (undergoing or) planning abortions. According to an article in The Conversation (2022), Facebook has the ability to find out whether you’ve scheduled an abortion consultation based on your digital trails, or information being shared by ‘crisis-pregnancy centres’ with the social media platform. Also, period tracker apps might be the most critical ones regarding data sensitivity. They store cycles and sexual activity which, in many cases, is sold to 3rd parties without user consent. The result is that your sensitive data is accessible to anyone who has the intent to find out whether you have or will brake the law by conducting an abortion in a different state.
I think it is time for the disallowance of recombination and sharing of sensitive data (such as this case) between 3rd parties. I actually think that we will see new initiatives rise following the overturning of Roe vs. Wade that will provide users the security and data privacy they deserve when using their application.
Overall a very sad series of events that, as you say, could turn into a dystopian reality.
Reference:
the Conversation (2022). Post Roe women in America are right to be concerned about digital surveillance and its not just period tracking apps. Retrieved on 14 October from; https://theconversation.com/post-roe-women-in-america-are-right-to-be-concerned-about-digital-surveillance-and-its-not-just-period-tracking-apps-185865