Three years ago, the Supreme Court was reversed Roe v. Wadedeleting the federal right to get an abortion in the United States. In his decision on June 24, 2022 at Dobbs by Jackson Women’s Health OrganizationJustice Samuel Alito, writing about the conservative majority, said he was overthrown Roe will return the power to regulate abortion “to the people and their elected representatives” -that is, in the states.
But Arch He did much more than that: he released a time of reproductive surveillance. Today, former digital information such as internet search stories and menstrual circles Examined by police or prosecutors in states with abortions. For example, in Nebraska, law enforcement successfully undervalued Facebook talks between a mother and the daughter during their investigation to prosecute the couple about the daughter’s illegal abortion. And because Privacy policies vary from app to appIt is difficult for users to know with certainty how safe their digital health information is.
Rewire News GroupJessica Mason Pieklo spoke with Ana Maria Ramirez, co-executive director of EukiA non -profit application that focuses on privacy, about digital monitoring of people’s reproductive health information and what people can do to secure their private data.
This interview, e -mail, has been slightly elaborated for clarity and length.
When you talk about digital surveillance around reproductive health, what exactly are you referring to?
Digital monitoring of reproductive health can come in so many forms, but generally involves the leverage of digital data that applications collect for us and its armament to give legal or expose our decisions about our reproductive health.
And this data is not only from health -related digital tools [like period-tracking apps]. Most often, they come from tools for general use. For example, location data on our travels could be collected by any number of mobile applications that passively or default collect location data, such as Google Maps. [Other sources include] The messages shared on social media platforms or with a text message, search or history of web in internet browsers have watched menstruation data on period trackers or dial data from our phones.
How did digital reproductive monitoring evolved over the three years since the Supreme Court was reversed Roe v. Wade;
The evolution of digital monitoring of reproduction since Arch It is really linked to policies and practices in all states to limit access to reproductive health care. This is combined with the fact that the technology industry in general still does not prioritize the privacy of user data, especially as artificial intelligence tools and large linguistic models – which both hit the data – have become such a focus for some of the most important technology companies.
In short, it only gets much worse. States such as Tennessee and Aidah They are trying to limit the trips of young people [for out-of-state abortions]while others (Alabama; Texas; Louisiana; [have tried to] Limit access to information [​​editor’s note: these states are attempting to impose criminal and civil liability for aiding and abetting abortion—which includes providing information about the procedure]. In addition, there are mere bans on abortion and care confirmed by gender in various states. The technology we use and depends on each day does nothing to prioritize the privacy of data.
Your organization has launched a new social media campaign throughout Midwest and southeast to publicize the dangers of digital surveillance and pregnancy crime. Tell us more about this campaign and why you specifically selected these areas.
The focus of our campaign is to get the word for euki, the first privacy application as a reliable tool for people they will use to track their playback data and have private access to accurate information about reproductive health. It is a step to deal with digital monitoring of our reproductive health.
We are focused on Midwest and Southeast, because these are areas where people usually have less access to information and services for reproductive health. These areas also have aggressive laws that limit the care and exercise of more digital surveillance. The EUKI application is a tool that we hope will give people a sense of power to take control of their body and their data no matter where they live. They do not need to endanger their privacy to participate in some of the benefits of technology, such as monitoring menstruation to monitor or monitor pregnancy for fertility and pregnancy.
What can Rewire News Group Readers do to protect their health information from surveillance?
About health data, people can:
- Use period observers that only store their data on the device, which means they are the only ones who can access or control their data. The EUKI application and the drip tracker are the two options that make this.
- While looking for information for information, they can use private browsers such as Firefox Focus or Tor (both have mobile applications) that will not store search history and prevent target marking, especially if they believe they are pregnant. Pregnancy data are some of the most valuable and expensive data for companies due to baby markets, so many companies desperately want this data and will pay a lot of money for it.
- Read the privacy policies for your health applications and make sure you are comfortable with the data collected by yours and with which they say they can share it.
What other privacy factors should people consider when using technology?
There are steps that people who are not specific to their health data or health applications can take, but they could be really useful, especially in more restrictive situations for reproductive health care:
- Turn off location sharing in applications when you are not using them or simply disable them unless you need it when using the app.
- Select the use of the Google Incognito function for maps. This distracts the use of the historical map from your Google account.
- Select the use of more private messaging applications such as Signal and set your conversations to have extinction messages.
Revelation: A member of the Rewire News Group Council consults for EUKI.
