According to a report by "USA Today" on July 1, after the U.S. Federal Supreme Court overturned the "Roe v. Wade" decision last week, women's abortion rights are no longer protected at the federal level. Google announced that the company will automatically delete location records showing when its users have visited US abortion clinics to prevent them from being used as evidence against users.
reported that Google and other large technology companies in the United States routinely collect user activity data, and there are growing concerns that in states where abortion has been made illegal this information may be used by authorities to target people who have already American women who have lost their abortion rights . Google responded accordingly. What is controversial about
is the "location history" function. Google said that in the coming weeks, it will delete what may be "particularly personal" information, namely location records of users who have visited some medical facilities, including counseling centers, domestic violence shelters, abortion clinics, fertility clinics, etc. center, drug rehab , weight loss or plastic surgery clinic.
Source: Visual China
reported that Google wrote in a blog post last Friday: "Today, we are announcing that if our systems identify that someone has visited these places, we will These record entries will be removed from their history soon."
However, USA Today noted that other data kept by Google could still be used by state authorities to prosecute women seeking abortions, such as search keyword history.
American privacy rights groups said that at this particularly vulnerable time, Google still has not done enough to protect the data of tens of millions of Americans.
Ryan Calo, a law professor at the University of Washington, commented: "Still the same old story, in response to the sea change on privacy issues, Google promised to make certain narrow changes to its practices, such as automatically deleting sensitive location data, but Fundamentally, the heavy responsibility of trying to manage their own privacy still falls on users.”
reported that according to a letter sent to Google by 42 Democratic lawmakers in May, Google tracked the living habits of millions of people. and targeting data, potentially becoming "a tool for far-right extremists who want to target people seeking reproductive health care."
"USA Today" pointed out that according to U.S. law, Google must comply with the government's request for this data, but the company claimed that it opposed "overly broad requests from law enforcement agencies" and notified people as much as possible when handing over data.
Google also said on Friday that the company's wearable smart device Fitbit will update the program to allow users to delete more than one menstrual record at once. American privacy rights groups warn the public to delete apps that track menstruation from mobile phones and other devices, otherwise the information may become unfavorable evidence when users are prosecuted.
(Editor: HX)
