When the U.S. senator’s report delivered another shockwave last week, some state governments and federal regulators had already moved to make individuals’ reproductive health information private. It described how cell phone location data was used to send millions of anti-abortion ads to Planned Parenthood visits. office.
Federal law prohibits health care providers from sharing health data without a patient’s consent, but it does not prevent digital technology companies from tracking menstrual cycles or a person’s location and selling it to data brokers. Federal bans have not gained traction, largely due to opposition from the technology industry.
In a country where most Republican-controlled states have restricted abortion, 14 of which have implemented bans at all stages of pregnancy, and most Democratic states have pushed for protections for abortion access. Now, whether or not this should change is another political issue. In 2022, Roe v. Wade was overturned.
Abortion rights advocates say that keeping this data private could lead to not only targeted advertising, but also law enforcement investigations and anti-abortion opponents seeking to harm people trying to terminate pregnancies. There are concerns that it could also be used by sectarian groups.
“It’s not just creepy,” said Washington state Rep. Vandana Slatter, who sponsored a law the state adopted last year to curb the misuse of health information. “It’s actually harmful.”
But so far, there is no evidence that this type of data is widely used in law enforcement investigations.
“We’re generally talking about future risks, but not what’s still happening on the ground,” said Albert Fox Kahn, executive director of the Surveillance Technology Monitoring Project and a conservation advocate. No,” he said.
A report last week by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., marked the largest known anti-abortion advertising campaign directed at people identified as having visited abortion providers.
Wyden’s investigation found that information collected by a now-defunct data broker called Near Intelligence was used to advertise for the Veritas Association, a nonprofit organization founded by the Right to Rights in Wisconsin. found. The ads targeted people who visited 600 locations in 48 states from 2019 to 2022. There were over 14 million ads in Wisconsin alone.
Mr. Wyden asked the Federal Trade Commission to intervene in Nia’s bankruptcy case and ensure that location information collected about Americans is destroyed and not sold to other data brokers. He is also asking the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate whether the company committed securities fraud by misleading investors about the senator’s investigation.
This is not the first time this issue has come up.
Massachusetts reached a settlement in 2017 with an advertising agency that ran a similar campaign nearly a decade ago.
The FTC sued one data broker, Kochava, over similar claims in an ongoing lawsuit in 2022, and the government accused another company, Exmode Social and its successor Out, of also selling location data of users who opted out. The company reached a settlement with Logic last month. Of such sharing. It was also revealed that X-Mode was selling location data to the US military.
In both cases, the FTC relied on laws governing unfair or deceptive practices.
Each state has also passed or is considering its own laws specifically aimed at protecting sensitive health information.
Slatter, a Washington Democrat, has been working on digital privacy issues for years, but has been unable to pass legislation with the comprehensive protections adopted in his state.
She said things changed when Law was flipped. She went to her 2022 rally and heard stories of women who were trying to delete their period tracking apps for fear their data would be misused.
When she introduced a healthcare-specific data privacy bill last year, it wasn’t just lawyers and lobbyists who testified. Women of all ages and walks of life also came together to support it.
The bill, which would ban the sale of personal health data without consumer consent and prohibit the tracking of people who visit reproductive health or sexual health facilities, has been approved by nearly every Democratic lawmaker in the state. It was adopted with support and opposition from all Republicans.
Connecticut and Nevada adopted similar laws last year. New York state has enacted a law banning the use of tracking around medical facilities.
California and Maryland have taken a different approach, enacting laws that prohibit computerized health networks from sharing confidential medical information with other health care providers without consent.
“The free and seamless exchange of health data is aimed at giving health care providers access to information so they can treat the whole person,” said Andrea Frey, an attorney representing health care providers and digital health. We are moving forward in earnest.” across the entire system. “On the flip side, it raises these privacy concerns.”
Illinois already had a law restricting how health tracking data, which measures things like heart rate and steps, could be shared, but last year it went into effect on January 1, making government license plate reading data available to law enforcement. A new law has been enacted that prohibits the provision of States that ban abortion.
Bills addressing some form of the problem have been introduced this year in several states, including Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, South Carolina and Vermont.
In Virginia, a bill that would ban the issuance of search warrants, subpoenas, or court orders for electronic or digital menstrual health data recently passed both chambers of the Democratic-controlled General Assembly.
Democratic Sen. Barbara Favola said she sees the bill as a necessary precaution as Republican politicians, including Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, seek restrictions on abortion.
“The next step in enforcing the abortion ban could be accessing menstrual health data, which is why I’m trying to protect that data,” Favola said during the committee hearing. .
Opponents asked if such data had ever been sought by law enforcement, but Favola said he was unaware of any specific instances.
“You’re just looking for a problem that doesn’t exist,” Republican Sen. Mark Peek said.
Yonkin’s administration made it clear last year that it opposed a similar bill, but his news organization did not respond to requests for comment on his position on the current version.
Sean O’Brien, founder of the Yale Privacy Lab, said that while there are problems with how health information is used, companies may choose to ignore the potential impact and continue to scoop up and sell the information. He said he doesn’t know if legislation is a solution because of the Confidential information.
“The software supply chain is extremely contaminated by individual location tracking,” he said.
Mulvihill reported from Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Associated Press writers Frank Bajak in Boston and Sarah Rankin in Richmond, Virginia, contributed to this story.
