Anonymous Says It's Hacking Databases to Protect Women Who Get Abortions

There's more than one hacking collaborative using their digital skills to protest the Supreme Court's decision to overturn abortion rights.

In the wake of the de-legalization of abortion, representatives of hacktivist group Anonymous claim to have deleted revealing information from period tracking apps.

"Data from menstrual tracking apps have been hacked and deleted to avoid identifying possible abortion in states where abortion is now banned," wrote an account that's been linked toAnonymous.

The post included the #OpJane, which seems to be part of a larger-scale effort to target pro-life organizations and governments.

Anti-choice organizations will be attacked daily to ensure they have no safe space on the internet.

The Daily Dot pointed out that this could be a lot of swagger with little depth. There have been no reported breeches of period tracking apps over the past few days, and while some of Anonymous' hacktivism has had far-reaching consequences, other of its operations have fallen flat.

Period tracking apps need to be scrutinized. According to the New York Times, period apps, which many have used for months or even years to support cycle health and knowledge, actually experienced a sharp increase in downloads in the days after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The experts took to the internet to ask women and girls to uninstall the apps from their phones.

Gina Neff, a Cambridge sociologist, told her followers to immediately remove all traces of menstrual tracking. "Yes, please."

A lot of people have a point. The information on these apps is not protected by HIPPA. In an era where data is bought and sold like candy, it's not likely that intel from digital menstruation diaries will end up in a court of law.

Cynthia Conti-Cook, a civil rights lawyer and Ford Foundation technology fellow, told the NYT that we should start with the types of data that have already been used tocriminalize people. "Your sister got a text from her saying she was pregnant." There is a search history for abortion pills or websites with information about abortion.

Flo introduced an anonymous mode as a response to fears, but who knows how much data is already out there, a risk that a different kind of anonymous mode is looking to counter.

Delegating your period tracker won't protect you.

There is more on the subject of abortion.