Last week, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, ending 50 years of the ability for women to get an abortion as a constitutional right. This is now leading to increased calls for increased online privacy, claims Cyberscoop.
Following the ruling, Roy Wyden (D-OR) said in a statement, “Congress must pass legislation protecting people’s data so their web searches, text messages and location tracking aren’t weaponized against them. Technology companies must take immediate steps to limit the collection and retention of customer data so that they don’t become tools of persecution.”
There is already legislation in the US Senate to fight against tech companies collecting too much data. Recent legislation introduced would prevent data brokers from selling American’s location and health data.
Cyberscoop noted examples such as Indiana and Mississippi have used already used data including search history and text messages to charge women accused of aborting their pregnancies. Other device data – including location data showing an individual visited an abortion clinic – could also be swept into a law enforcement dragnet.
In response to these recent rulings, President Joe Biden has claimed that ‘privacy is on the ballot’ at this year’s midterm elections in November.
Biden said, “Extremists governors and state legislators looking to block the mail, or search a person’s medicine cabinet, or control a woman’s actions by tracking data on our app she uses are wrong and extreme and out of touch.”
Twitter will pay a $150m penalty due to allegations by federal regulations that the platform failed to protect the privacy of users’ data over a six-year span.
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