CDT CEO Pens New Op-Ed on Protecting Reproductive Privacy

CDT CEO Alexandra Reeve Givens & President of the National Partnership for Women & Families President Jocelyn Frye collaborated on a new op-ed that first appeared in Tech Policy Press on September 9, 2024.

Read an Excerpt:

When you visit a reproductive health clinic or have a telehealth meeting online with a doctor in the United States, the medical professionals you interact with are generally prohibited from sharing your health data without permission. But that privacy doesn’t extend to everyone keeping an eye on your activities — like your phone, the apps you use, or even your car’s location mapping tools. For them, personal data about your health is just another commodity — and through companies known as “data brokers” it’s for sale to the highest bidder, including the police. That needs to change.

In the wake of the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, millions are living under the specter of surveillance and criminalization for seeking, assisting with, or providing abortion care. The dangers that electronic surveillance poses to reproductive health privacy are daunting. Cell phone location data can reveal visits to clinics; last October, Idaho police used geolocation records stored on a phone to track a visit to a Planned Parenthood in Oregon. Communications metadata that logs who we call and text — the type of records recently stolen from over 100 million AT&T users — can reveal when a pregnant person receives abortion care. Web browsing data can show efforts to obtain reproductive health information, find clinics, and purchase medication abortion pills.

Sensitive personal records have already been used to prosecute reproductive health activities and adverse pregnancy outcomes like stillbirths and miscarriages. It’s time to fix the gaps in our nation’s privacy laws that allow people’s health-related information to be recklessly bought and sold.

Full Op-Ed here.