Democratic representatives are widening their scrutiny into the role of tech companies in collecting the personal data of people who may be seeking an abortion, as lawmakers, regulators and the Biden administration grapple with the aftermath of the Supreme Court ruling last month ending the constitutional protections for abortion.
In a new volley of congressional letters, six House
Democrats have asked the top executives of Amazon's cloud-service network and
major cloud provider Oracle about the companies' handling of consumers'
location data from mobile phones, and what steps they have taken or planned to
protect the privacy rights of individuals seeking information on abortion.
Privacy advocates are watching for possible new moves by law
enforcement agencies in affected states — serving subpoenas, for example, on
tech companies such as Google, Apple, Bing, Facebook's Messenger and WhatsApp,
services like Uber and Lyft, and internet service providers including AT&T,
Verizon, T-Mobile and Comcast.
“Data collected and sold by your company could be used by
law enforcement and prosecutors in states with aggressive abortion
restrictions,” the House Democrats, led by Representative Lori Trahan of
Massachusetts, said in the letters. “Additionally, in states that empower
vigilantes and private actors to sue abortion providers, this information can
be used as part of judicial proceedings."
“When consumers use apps on their phone and quickly tap
‘yes' on ‘use geolocation data' pop-ups, they should not be worried about the
endless sale of their data to advertisers, individuals or law enforcement. And
it most certainly should not be used to hunt down, prosecute and jail an
individual seeking reproductive care. Companies can take action today to
protect individual rights.”
The letters also went to executives of Near Intelligence
Holdings and Mobilewalla. Along with Oracle and Amazon Web Services' Data
Exchange, the companies were described as leading data brokers — businesses
that gather, sell or trade location data from mobile phones, which could be
used to track people who have visited abortion clinics or have gone out of
state seeking abortion services.
Five other Democrats active in tech issues signed the
letters with Trahan: Representatives David Cicilline of Rhode Island, Yvette
Clarke of New York, Debbie Dingell of Michigan, Adam Schiff of California and
Sean Casten of Illinois.
Spokespeople for Amazon and Oracle didn't respond to
requests for comment from The Associated Press.
Also this week, Massachusetts' two US senators, Democrats
Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey, sent letters to four companies raising
concerns that the software they use to monitor students' online communications
could be used to punish students who seek information about abortion services
and reproductive health care. They asked the companies — Bark Technologies,
Gaggle.net, GoGuardian and Securly — whether their software flags students'
online searches for abortion and other related terms.
“It would be deeply disturbing if your software flags words
or activity that suggest students are searching for contraception, abortion or
other related services, and if school administrators, parents and even law
enforcement were potentially informed of this activity,” Warren and Markey
wrote.
Generally, the so-called “ed tech” companies say the
monitoring is intended to stop the next school shooter or student suicide, and
that the scans are mostly limited to school e-mails or activity on school
computers or internet networks, not private accounts.
Earlier this month, President Joe Biden, under mounting
pressure from fellow Democrats to be more forceful in response to the Supreme
Court ruling, signed an executive order to try to protect access to abortion. The
actions Biden outlined are intended to head off some potential penalties that
women seeking abortion may face after the ruling, but his order cannot restore
access to abortion in the more than a dozen states where strict limits or total
bans have gone into effect.
Biden also asked the Federal Trade Commission to take steps
to protect the privacy of those seeking information about reproductive care
online. On June 24, the day the high court announced its decision, four
Democratic lawmakers asked the FTC to investigate Apple and Google for
allegedly deceiving millions of mobile phone users by enabling the collection
and sale of their personal data of all kinds to third parties.
In May, several Senate Democrats urged the CEOs of Google
and Apple to prohibit apps on the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store
from using data-mining practices that could facilitate the targeting of
individuals seeking abortion services.