Internet Privacy is Under Siege Along With Abortion Rights
Having witnessed how much the world seemed to change after the Roe v. Wade decision legalized abortion nationwide, it has been stunning — although not too surprising — to see how much the world has tried to change back.
Written by Justice Samuel Alito, the conservative 6-3 majority opinion maintained that the right to an abortion was a part of the right to privacy — neither of which is explicitly included in the Constitution, although the right is inferred by the landmark 1965 Griswold v. Connecticut, in which Roe v. Wade is largely grounded.
You thought you had a right to privacy? Guess again.
Kicking the legs out from under the right to privacy has big and ominous implications, particularly at a time when police and other crime fighters turn increasingly to internet search engines like Google for help.
For example, in the new post-Roe world, privacy advocates reasonably ask, is Google doing enough to safeguard your data from falling into the wrong hands — or popping up on the wrong screens?
In response to complaints, Google announced on July 1 that it will delete abortion clinic visits, as well as trips to fertility clinics, domestic violence shelters and addiction treatment facilities among other sensitive locations.
Shades of Big Brother. I’m not talking about the network TV reality show. I’m talking about the ominous and omnipresent overlord in George Orwell’s 1949 novel “1984,” symbol of a totalitarian state in which every citizen is under constant surveillance and propaganda by ever-present “telescreens.”
We’re not there yet but the growing number of requests from law enforcement agencies turning to Google for access to information on users raises big questions as to what may happen in states where abortion, or helping someone to obtain one, is once again a serious crime.
In the first half of last year, Google received more than 50,000 subpoenas, search warrants and other legal requests for data Google retains, according to the company’s transparency report.
Outside conventional law enforcement, some states are considering the bounty-hunter approach embedded in Texas’ notorious anti-abortion law Senate Bill 8, which offers cash rewards to would-be plaintiffs for successfully finding and suing anyone who aids a woman’s access to abortion — even, as it often has been said, her Uber driver.
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