In a post-Roe world, the future of digital privacy looks even bleaker
The sheer amount of technological tools and knowledge required to discreetly seek out an abortion underscores how open we are to surveillance.
Welcome to the post-Roe era of digital privacy, a moment that highlights how the use of technology has made it virtually impossible for Americans to escape ubiquitous tracking.< /p>
In states that have banned abortion, some women looking for out-of-state options to terminate their pregnancies may end up following a long list of steps to attempt to evade surveillance, such as connecting to the Internet through an encrypted tunnel and using an email address burner — and reducing the likelihood of prosecution.
Even so, they could still be tracked. Law enforcement can obtain court orders to access detailed information, including location data recorded by telephone networks. And many police departments have their own surveillance technologies, like license plate readers.
This makes privacy tools for consumers as effective as rearranging furniture in a room with no window curtains.
"There's no perfect solution," said Sinan Eren, executive at Barracuda, a security company. "Your telecommunications network is your weakest link."
In other words, the state of digital privacy is already so far gone that giving up privacy altogether he use of digital tools may be the only way to secure information, security researchers have said. Leaving cell phones at home would help evade persistent location tracking deployed by mobile carriers. Payments for prescription drugs and health services should ideally be made in cash. For travel, public transportation like the bus or train would be more discreet than ride-sharing apps.
Reproductive privacy has become so difficult that government officials and lawmakers are racing to introduce new policies and bills to protect Americans' data.
President Biden last week issued an executive order to strengthen patient privacy, in part by combating digital surveillance. Civil liberties groups have said it shouldn't be up to individual women to protect themselves from reproductive health tracking, the kind of police spying that Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, has called "uterus surveillance".
"There are two things that need to happen," said Adam Schwartz, senior attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group in San Francisco. “One is vigilante oversight, which is important but not sufficient. And the second is enacting legislation that protects reproductive privacy. Introduced in June by Rep. Sara Jacobs, a California Democrat, the bill would prohibit businesses and non-profit organizations from collecting, maintaining, using or sharing a person's reproductive or sexual health information without the person...
The sheer amount of technological tools and knowledge required to discreetly seek out an abortion underscores how open we are to surveillance.
Welcome to the post-Roe era of digital privacy, a moment that highlights how the use of technology has made it virtually impossible for Americans to escape ubiquitous tracking.< /p>
In states that have banned abortion, some women looking for out-of-state options to terminate their pregnancies may end up following a long list of steps to attempt to evade surveillance, such as connecting to the Internet through an encrypted tunnel and using an email address burner — and reducing the likelihood of prosecution.
Even so, they could still be tracked. Law enforcement can obtain court orders to access detailed information, including location data recorded by telephone networks. And many police departments have their own surveillance technologies, like license plate readers.
This makes privacy tools for consumers as effective as rearranging furniture in a room with no window curtains.
"There's no perfect solution," said Sinan Eren, executive at Barracuda, a security company. "Your telecommunications network is your weakest link."
In other words, the state of digital privacy is already so far gone that giving up privacy altogether he use of digital tools may be the only way to secure information, security researchers have said. Leaving cell phones at home would help evade persistent location tracking deployed by mobile carriers. Payments for prescription drugs and health services should ideally be made in cash. For travel, public transportation like the bus or train would be more discreet than ride-sharing apps.
Reproductive privacy has become so difficult that government officials and lawmakers are racing to introduce new policies and bills to protect Americans' data.
President Biden last week issued an executive order to strengthen patient privacy, in part by combating digital surveillance. Civil liberties groups have said it shouldn't be up to individual women to protect themselves from reproductive health tracking, the kind of police spying that Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, has called "uterus surveillance".
"There are two things that need to happen," said Adam Schwartz, senior attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group in San Francisco. “One is vigilante oversight, which is important but not sufficient. And the second is enacting legislation that protects reproductive privacy. Introduced in June by Rep. Sara Jacobs, a California Democrat, the bill would prohibit businesses and non-profit organizations from collecting, maintaining, using or sharing a person's reproductive or sexual health information without the person...
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