Planned Parenthood, an organization that provides reproductive health services and performs abortions in the US, can share the location and even details of the termination procedure with major tech companies including Google, Facebook and TikTok. The information is from The Washington Post newspaper.
The conclusion is from the company Lockdown Privacy, which develops an application to block online tracking. The work points out that the Planned Parenthood website does not keep completely confidential data that can help authorities in the identification and formalization of lawsuits against women who have had abortions in states where the procedure is prohibited.
The IP address and approximate zip code of those who access the organization’s website, in addition to the chosen abortion method, can be shared. “This was absolutely shocking,” said Johnny Lin, founder of Lockdown Privacy. “We’ve analyzed and reviewed tracking across hundreds of apps and websites, and it’s rare to see this degree of carelessness with sensitive health data.”
Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Lauren Kokum did not respond to The Washington Post whether the organization intends to review procedures because of new bans on abortion in US states, nor the reason for sharing information gleaned from scheduling pages. . She stated that the trackers on the site are used to improve the performance of the marketing area.
Facebook, Google and TikTok did not comment on whether they would respond to any requests made by the government about abortion data.
The US Supreme Court last week reversed a 1973 ruling that guaranteed full access to abortion in the country. From now on, each US state can decide whether or not to terminate a pregnancy is allowed. The change is expected to particularly affect poorer women in conservative states, as they are less able to travel to another state where the procedure is authorized.
At least 13 states had laws ready to be adopted shortly after the court’s announcement, and about 10 more are expected to follow suit.
