Jezebel: Google Isn’t Deleting Users’ Abortion-Related Data, Despite Post-Roe Promise. “Accountable Tech’s research, shared with the Guardian, suggests that if Google doesn’t precisely detect that a user went inside an abortion clinic, and was just in the area of one, their location data isn’t deleted.”
Bloomberg: Google Urged by US Lawmakers to Fix Misleading Abortion Ads. “Alphabet Inc.’s Google introduced a policy in 2019 that requires those advertising alongside search queries related to abortion to be certified based on whether they provide the procedure. In a letter addressed to Alphabet Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai, Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia, and Representative Elissa Slotkin, a Michigan Democrat, expressed concern that the search giant does not consistently apply those rules, which can lead users to crisis pregnancy centers — non-medical organizations that encourage visitors to keep their pregnancies.”
The Journal (Ireland): Online archive of messages left at Savita mural expected to be accessible by 2023. “DUBLIN CITY LIBRARY and Archive says it hopes the digital archive of messages left at the Savita Halappanavar mural will be completed by early 2023…. Ms Halappanavar died at 17 weeks pregnant in 2012 from sepsis – the young woman had requested an abortion, which was denied on legal grounds by University Hospital Galway. Her death sparked a wave of outcry over Ireland’s restrictive abortion laws.”
Engadget: Period tracker app Flo launches ‘Anonymous Mode’ for iOS devices. “Flo’s anonymous mode has arrived. The period tracker promised to launch the new mode shortly after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, in an effort to assuage privacy-related fears.”
ABC News: Google workers battle company over ‘life and death’ abortion policies. “The Alphabet Workers Union, or AWU, an advocacy group made up of more than 1,000 employees, has called on Google to strengthen its approach to abortion-related issues or risk an escalation in employee pressure. The AWU functions as a ‘minority union,’ which means it pressures the company through worker organizing but does not formally represent workers in collective bargaining.”
Engadget: Google Search and Maps results will confirm if a medical center offers abortions. “In the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned, Google announced that it is making it easier to use its Maps and Search products to find medical providers that offer abortions. When someone searches for specific services and Google has confirmation that a location provides those services, it’ll be clearly labeled in Search and Maps.”
Ars Technica: Google Maps accused of leading users to fake abortion clinics. “In 2018, Google was first confronted by media reports investigating why crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs)—often religious, non-medical organizations that do not provide abortion services or referrals for abortion services—frequently dominate Google Maps search results for ‘abortion clinics.’ Now, four years later, the tech company seems to be making some moves to potentially change the quality of these sorts of search results.”
CNN: How Google found itself under pressure from all sides after Roe’s demise. “In mid-June, one week before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, more than 20 Congressional Democrats wrote a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai. In it, they urged the company to prevent searches for abortion clinics from returning results and ads that direct users to facilities that actually oppose the procedure, noting it could put women’s health at risk. The next month, 17 Republican attorneys general wrote a letter to Pichai pushing for the opposite.”
Wall Street Journal: Phones Know Who Went to an Abortion Clinic. Whom Will They Tell? . “In May, shortly after the draft of the Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade became public, location-data specialist Tapestri Inc. received unusual requests from two companies. Each wanted to purchase mobile-device data that would reveal users who had visited abortion clinics along the Illinois-Missouri border, said Tapestri Chief Executive Walter Harrison.”
CNN: YouTube will start removing misinformation related to abortion. “YouTube on Thursday said it will no longer allow misinformation related to abortion on its platform, including false claims about the safety of the procedure and potentially unsafe instructions about how to self-induce an abortion.”
Ars Technica: South Carolina lawmakers want to banish abortion talk from the Internet. “Known as the ‘Equal Protection at Conception—No Exceptions—Act,’ the bill would ban any website from hosting or publishing any information about accessing or self-inducing abortion ‘knowing that the information will be used, or is reasonably likely to be used, for an abortion.’”
NBC News: Google and Yelp disable reviews on some crisis pregnancy center pages amid activist ‘spam’ campaign. “Google and Yelp appear to have disabled the ability to post reviews for some crisis pregnancy centers listed on the platforms, which some activists say could prevent them from providing accurate information about the centers, which are known for trying to persuade women seeking abortions not to get them. Google appears to have also disabled the ability to post reviews of some abortion providers, like Planned Parenthood.”
Washington Post: You scheduled an abortion. Planned Parenthood’s website could tell Facebook.. “The Supreme Court’s decision last week overturning the nationwide right to an abortion in the United States may have sent worried people flooding to Planned Parenthood’s website to learn about nearby clinics or schedule services. But if they used the organization’s online scheduling tool, it appears Planned Parenthood could share people’s location — and, in some cases, even the method of abortion they selected — with big tech companies.”
NBC New York: NY Says Google Maps Search Is Sending Abortion Seekers to Anti-Abortion Clinics Instead. “New York Attorney General Letitia James is calling on Google to correct search results she says are directing abortion seekers to dangerous and misleading anti-abortion clinics in the state, her latest action to shore up abortion rights in the Empire State.”
Washington Post: Okay, Google: To protect women, collect less data about everyone. “A search for ‘Plan B,’ a ping to Google Maps at an abortion clinic or even a message you send about taking a pregnancy test could all become criminal evidence. There is something Google could do about this: stop collecting — and start deleting — data that could be used to prosecute abortions. Yet so far, Google and other Big Tech companies have committed to few product changes that might endanger their ability to profit off our personal lives. Nor have they publicly committed to how they might fight legal demands related to prosecuting abortions.” Google has announced that it will be deleting some location data.
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