Google vows to delete location history for abortion clinic visits
Google will help protect the privacy of those that travel to abortion clinics.
The recent overturning of Roe v. Wade will have massive ramifications for women around the country. With abortions to soon become either illegal or more difficult to perform in multiple states, many will need to travel across state lines to seek the care they need. As a company that tracks a plethora of user data, including geographical location, Google has announced that it will delete location history for users that travel to get an abortion.
Google’s senior VP of core systems and experiences Jen Fitzpatrick announced the company’s new initiative last Friday, days after the Supreme Court ruled to strike down Roe v. Wade, which previously protected abortions as a constitutional right.
“Today, we’re announcing that if our systems identify that someone has visited one of these places, we will delete these entries from Location History soon after they visit,” she said in the announcement. With the understanding that people will now have to travel to visit abortion clinics, there are already concerns about potential legal repercussions for doing so.
There are also significant concerns surrounding privacy following the Supreme Court ruling. The decision to get an abortion can be incredibly personal, and Google’s system automatically removing those visits from location history will help users to protect their privacy. Google also spoke about the Fitbit, which can be used to track menstrual cycles in its users. “Fitbit users who have chosen to track their menstrual cycles in the app can currently delete menstruation logs one at a time, and we will be rolling out updates that let users delete multiple logs at once.”
Multiple tech companies have announced their efforts to help employees and users in the face of the Roe v Wade strikedown. Disney, Netflix, and Paramount were among several companies that confirmed they would cover travel costs for workers that need to go out of state for the health care they need.
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replyDonovan Erskine posted a new article, Google vows to delete location history for abortion clinic visits
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How is it illegal?
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lol what a terrible post
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Nothing illegal about deleting log data.
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It is a valid way to frame the problem, in a way.
For the middle of the road male population (mostly but not exclusively white), the past decade or two have given them more rights overall and less need to break the law, particularly in just smoking a doobie. Just a little thing but not if you think about how much people had to creep around in fear over a joint. And that was just to get high and amuse yourself.
Now in one fell swoop, a tremendous number of women will have to break the law to just protect their lives and health, with much more severe consequences on either side of the choice than a joint could ever cause (unless you’re black).
So it’s very valid from a woman’s point of view to think men have been handed a carrot to help them forget what it’s like to have breaking the law hanging over their heads constantly. We need more empathy and solidarity, not less, and sometimes it feels like men have worse attitudes about our needs than ever.
Men are really going to have to dig deep to hold onto their sense of humanity towards others, when society is being actively set up by evil fascists to seemingly work in their favor, even if it’s just a lulling delusion. If you care about women, y’all are going to have to get used to being on the wrong side of very wrong laws.
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Between this and that tone deaf Asian menopause post yesterday, it feels like someone hijacked your account. 👀
But frankly, just so you know, this is what I am saying to all men who aren’t fully outraged at our current abrogation of bodily rights. I know they probably don’t think they hate women because they love their mom and wife and female friends, but it’s a way of shocking them out of their complacency and making them think more deeply about their position and willingness to help us. At this point women will not be able to overcome becoming slaves of the state without men joining in and fighting with us for our right to our bodies.
So nothing personal. Just spend some time thinking about where you fit in.
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Fuck any law that demands to know this information.
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100%
but that doesn't mean those laws don't exist and that shirif is a woman hater...
Frum (not a fan in any way but his articles are well written) wrote about how banning abortion is similar to prohibition and that it'll cause a massive backlash and wouldn't take as long to repeal as prohibition did.
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Google: How can we make this nuanced and polarizing topic about Google? I got it, first we determine if you went to a clinic, then we advertise to everyone that we will delete that time you went, but just from your location history. We'll still know. We always know.
Predatory and gross.-
I turn my phone off BEFORE I go in the theatre, they will know I saw a movie but they don't know which movie I saw.
Actually, they can probably guess it is the new Jordan Peele, and they also probably know I got a large popcorn with extra layered butter and a cola Icee. Sell my info bitches!
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Uh, yeah? They’ve been doing it for years.
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That’s the police for you
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Prepare to get mad:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-party_doctrine -
Of course they can. See also: your search history, your message history, etc. It's a perfect setup. The government cannot legally surveil you all the time but Google can because you opted in. Now the government can subpoena the surveillance records they need on demand even starting with broad things like 'people who searched for term X around time/place Y'.
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And then private companies create tech that the police, with their massive budgets, spend big money on that depend on data from Google et al.
This is part of why people want to defund the police. The more money they have to spend, the greater the incursion on everyone. -
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Apple also complies with requests for data just the same - what they've done differently is to try not to have it in the first place, though.
But yeah, stuff like AirTag location/registration I think they keep for 3-4 weeks, and it can be queried if you have a specific device.-
yeah also if you have iCloud backup of your phone (you should) then the iCloud backup is not encrypted by default and also contains the decryption key for your iMessages (rendering the end to end encryption of your iMessages moot if law enforcement wants to take a look).
Your location is also important. Apple somewhat recently relocated all Chinese customer data to data centers in China to comply with local laws that give the CCP easier access to data on demand. Privacy is ultimately subservient to profits.
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