More than 40 Democratic members of the US Congress are asking Google to stop what they see as the unnecessary collection and retention of people's location data, arguing the information could be used to identify women seeking abortions.

In a letter sent Tuesday to Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google parent Alphabet, the lawmakers express concern that if abortion were to become illegal in the US, the company's "current practice of collecting and retaining extensive records of cell phone location data will allow it to become a tool for far-right extremists looking to crack down on people seeking reproductive Health care. [1]

Figure 1. Google Urged to Stop Collecting Information, Location Data to Safeguard Abortion Patients in the US

Figure 1 shows If the US Supreme Court upends the 1973 decision that legalized abortion — as a draft opinion suggests it may in the coming weeks — pregnancies could be surveilled and the data shared with police or sold to vigilantes, privacy experts fear.

Google, specifically, stores "historical location information about hundreds of millions of smartphone users," the letter notes, "which it routinely shares with government agencies." [2]

Representatives for Alphabet didn’t instantly reply to a message for remark. Tech corporations have largely tried to remain out of the abortion debate. Meta, which owns Fb, has reportedly reminded workers that they’re prohibited from discussing abortion in office communication channels. Meta didn’t reply to a request for remark.

Of their letter, the Democrats, who have been led by Senator Ron Wyden from Oregon, asks Google to cease accumulating and retaining information of their clients’ each motion. [3]

Law enforcement officers routinely receive court orders, forcing Google to turn over its customers’ location information, the letter notes. This includes “geofence” orders, which are requests from Google to provide data about all people who were near a specific location at a specific time.

According to the company, Google received 11,554 geofence warrants in 2020. It did not say how many of them it complied with. [4]

References:

1. https://newslogic.in/technology/google-urged-to-stop-collecting-information-location-data-to-safeguard-abortion-patients-in-the-us/
2. https://gadgets360.com/internet/news/google-ceo-sundar-pichai-urged-stop-collecting-information-location-data-safeguard-abortion-patients-us-democrats-3007295#pfrom=home-popular
3. https://globalonlinemony.com/google-urged-to-stop-collecting-information-location-data-to-safeguard-abortion-patients-in-the-us/
4. https://indianlekhak.com/tech-gadgets/google-urged-to-stop-collecting-information-location-data-to-protect-abortion-patients-in-us

Cite this article:

Thanusri swetha J (2022), Google Urged to Stop Collecting Information, Location Data to Safeguard Abortion Patients in the US, AnaTechMaz, pp. 88