Sneaky ways cops could access data to widely prosecute abortions in the US

It's not clear what role tech companies will play in helping police access data to prosecute abortions in post-Roe America, but it has already become apparent that law enforcement is willing to be deceptive.

When Meta faced scrutiny from reproductive rights activists for complying with a search warrant request from police in Nebraska, cops revealed a possible tactic they could use. The Nebraska cops told Meta they were looking into a crime.

They were investigating a case in which a woman was accused of helping her daughter procure an abortion in the state at 23 weeks. The mother is accused of aiding her daughter in an abortion because of data supplied by Meta. Celeste is being tried as an adult.

Meta was criticized over its decision to comply with Nebraska warrants. There was no mention of abortion in the warrants Meta received from local law enforcement in June.

Meta's explanation didn't impress some of the toughest critics. Meta could have discovered the true intentions of the investigation if the company had followed its own policies and looked at the data before sharing it, according to experts.

The op-ed suggested that Facebook could choose to conduct a careful review of each law enforcement request to reveal user data for consistency with international human rights standards. The experts said that because the UN protects access to abortion, Facebook could have fought the warrant from Nebraska police.

The op-ed didn't say what legal basis there would be for a US-based company like Facebook to argue in a US court to uphold its own policies adhering to international human rights laws. The experts pointed in the op-ed to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, a 50-year old agreement that includes the right to abortion access.

Facebook should be the one to explain whether or not they apply their policies to legal requests, as their website promises users, or whether those promises are meaningless and not applied equally. Meta didn't respond to multiple requests to clarify if it will only push back against law enforcement requests that violate international human rights standards.

Ars did not get a response from the lawyers who represented Celeste and Jessica. The mother and daughter's data seizure became a prime example of how Big Tech companies could help law enforcement investigate abortions. Experts say that abortion could be prosecuted at levels never before seen in the US due to the fact that it's harder for police to track it.

Even though Big Tech companies collect the most information on Americans, that doesn't mean they'll always be the main force in driving abortion-related arrests. The courts will have to decide which laws stand up against the others and which evidence is compelling as abortion access is further restricted nationwide. There are other kinds of tech that may prove more useful to the police in winning convictions. Privacy experts were struggling to keep up with what new technologies law enforcement were using before the Supreme Court's decision on abortion, according to a privacy advocate for the EFF.

One example of a new technology giving cops access to data that they didn't know they had was revealed by the EFF. Police software called Fog reveal was brought to light by a joint investigation by the EFF and the Associated Press.