Democrats say Google must curb location tracking before Roe repeal

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

A group of more than 40 Democratic members of Congress have asked the search engine to stop collecting and retaining location data because it could be used to prosecute people who have obtained abortions.

The request was made by members of the House and Senate, led by Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), and including well-known progressive representatives such as Ayanna Pressley, Elizabeth Warren, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

The letter states that they believe that abortion is health care. In a world where abortion could be made illegal, we are concerned that the current practice of collecting and retaining extensive records of cell phone location data will allow it to become a tool for far-right extremists.

Law enforcement agencies request that tech companies provide data on all mobile phones that passed through a geographically defined area in a certain time period in the letter. The use ofgeofence warrants has been criticized for their use in the investigation of protesters during Black Lives Matter demonstrations, and their use has grown dramatically in recent years.

With more than 20 states preparing to outlaw abortion as soon as the court overturns the Wade decision, it's more than likely that a warrant could be used to target anyone visiting.

To prevent this from happening, the signatories of the letter requested that the location data collection practices of the company be changed so that the data is only collected at an aggregate level, rather than on an individual basis. The letter states that Americans who can afford an Apple device have more privacy than the millions of Americans using a device like a Android device.

The reproductive rights advocates have been on high alert since a draft opinion was leaked suggesting that the Supreme Court intends to overturn Wade. Concerns have been raised that digital technology could be used to prosecute people who seek out abortions. On the same day that the Democratic letter was released, the New York-based Surveillance Technology Oversight Project published a report on the many ways that people seeking abortions might be tracked, citing a number of existing cases where data from internet search history or credit card transactions has been used against people who have

In a statement, Albert Fox Cahn, executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, welcomed the Congressional letter, saying that they should becomplicit in criminalizing abortion.

Cahn said that tech firms have to stop collecting data that puts pregnant people at risk. If tech giants don't act soon, we'll see pregnant people going out of state to get an abortion, only to be arrested.

The company did not respond to questions sent by The Verge, but did make a public response to the letter.