How to Protect Your Digital Privacy if Roe v. Wade Falls

While it may be important for people in the US to consider what they post when it comes to their own abortions or loved ones, the goal of this advice is not to chill speech, according to an independent public health researcher who studies abortion access.

I don't want to tell someone not to talk about their experience, because there is a lot of power in abortion stories.

Know your rights.

People in the US should feel secure in their rights when dealing with law enforcement, according to researchers. If you are being questioned by the police, you can say, "I am exercising my right to remain silent and I want to speak with an attorney." Lock your devices with a strong, unique PIN number, keep them locked, and ask for an attorney if a cop tries to force you to unlocks your device.

McMahon says that in the rare case of a medication abortion, people should not feel pressure to tell clinicians in the emergency room or other health care settings. Simply saying, "I think I'm having a miscarriage" will suffice.

McMahon says that it is impossible to tell the difference between a medication abortion and a serous abortion. In this case, the treatment is the same, so nothing is lost if you don't reveal your health history.

There is a lot of data.

A major challenge in controlling the flow of personal information as people research or seek abortions is that using apps, browsing the web, and using search engines expose personal details. By the time someone is seeking an abortion, they have generated data that could reveal their health status. Period- tracking apps gather data that may seem benign but is sensitive in the context of potential abortion criminalization. Flo Health, a fertility-tracking app, was sanctioned by the Federal Trade Commission for sharing user health data with marketing and analytic firms. Many examples of health websites sharing personal data with third parties or conducting targeted ad- tracking without adequately notifying users and in violation of their privacy policies have been found by researchers.

If you use a search engine that doesn't track sensitive user data, like DuckDuckGo, and browser extensions that block web trackers, you can cut down on how much of your browsing data ends up in. Recording and storing reproductive information, like a notebook or a paper calendar, is possible with an analogue option.