WASHINGTON, DC – Today, The Tech Oversight Project slammed Big Tech and the astroturf proxies for damaging abortion rights and for the audacity to wield Roe v. Wade as their latest concern troll for their opposition to bipartisan antitrust reform. TechNet, an industry-funded shell organization, represents Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon – all companies that harvest and sell users’ location and search history to radical right-wing groups that target and harass doctors and people seeking abortion services. In a post-Roe landscape, these companies could further cooperate with conservative state governments and law enforcement to track, target, and prosecute people seeking and providing reproductive health services.
“For years, Big Tech platforms have enabled right-wing anti-abortion radicals to follow, harass, endanger, and prosecute people seeking abortions. Pardon me for not being moved by Big Tech’s latest concern troll after profiting off of violence against people seeking reproductive health care,” said Sacha Haworth, Executive Director of the Tech Oversight Project. “Lawmakers should treat this insult with the level of respect Big Tech platforms give to our privacy and throw it right in the trash.”
Background:
- Through massive data surveillance, Big Tech puts people seeking abortion in danger.
- Companies like Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon already track users’ location data, search history, payment history, and even fertility and pregnancy info from apps.
- Big Tech uses that data to help anti-choice activists who track, target, and harass people seeking abortions.
- Big Tech may even cooperate with right-wing state governments who wish to criminalize and prosecute people seeking abortions or reproductive health services.
Ripped from the Headlines:
- Washington Post: Your phone could reveal if you’ve had an abortion.
- CNN: Search histories, location data, text messages: How personal data could be used to enforce anti-abortion laws.
- Rewire News Group: Anti-Choice Groups Use Smartphone Surveillance to Target ‘Abortion-Minded Women’ During Clinic Visits.
- Vice: Data Broker Is Selling Location Data of People Who Visit Abortion Clinics.
- Fast Company: How an online search for abortion pills landed this woman in jail.
- Wall Street Journal: You Give Apps Sensitive Personal Information. Then They Tell Facebook.
- Washington Post: Is your pregnancy app sharing your intimate data with your boss?
- Consumer Reports: Glow Pregnancy App Exposed Women to Privacy Threats, Consumer Reports Finds.
- TechCrunch: Apple Maps Had Been Directing People Searching For Abortion Clinics To Adoption Centers Since 2011.