The announcement comes a week after the US Supreme Court overturned its historic decision legalizing abortion.
THE Google will automatically delete the geolocation data of its users who visit abortion clinics, the internet giant announced on Friday, following concerns that such electronic data could be used to track down women who wish to terminate their pregnancies.
“If our systems detect that a person has gone to a (sensitive) site, we will delete their geolocation history shortly after they visit,” stated the Jen Fitzpatrick vice president of Google in a statement.
This announcement is made one week after the US Supreme Court overturned his historic decision that had legalized abortion.
Democratic lawmakers and rights groups worried that the personal data of women who had abortions or those who helped them could be held against their will by prosecutors in conservative states that have banned abortion. For weeks now they have been asking the big internet companies to no longer retain personal information, information from internet searches about abortion or geolocation information.
Nevertheless Google, Meta and Apple so far they had not reacted.
Fitzpatrick added that Google routinely “rejects” inappropriate and excessive requests from authorities, without specifically referring to abortion.
“We take into account the privacy and security expectations of people who use our products and warn them when we accept requests from the government, except when human lives are at risk.” he added.
Among the sensitive places affected by Google’s decision are domestic violence shelters, weight loss clinics and rehab centers.
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