Amazon, Oracle shrug off lawmaker fears of abortion data sales
Amazon.com Inc., Oracle Corp. and other data providers pressed by a group of U.S. lawmakers about how they sell mobile phone location data offered assurances that the information couldn’t be used to track individuals seeking abortion services.
U.S. Representative Lori Trahan, one of the House members questioning the companies, said she wasn’t satisfied with the answers.
While all the companies detailed ways they keep data anonymized, “similar practices and policies at a number of brokers have already proven insufficient, even before the overturning of Roe raised the stakes for tens of millions of women,” Trahan said Friday in a statement to Bloomberg.
Trahan was among six Democratic House members and privacy groups including Access Now, Fight for the Future and Amnesty International that requested information in July on data protection policies from Amazon, Oracle, MobileWalla and Near Intelligence Holdings Inc. The questions followed the Supreme Court’s decision overturning a federal right to abortion, which has sparked concerns that location data could be used by law enforcement in states that have outlawed or restricted abortion to prosecute people who seek reproductive care.
The responses to the lawmakers and advocacy groups haven’t been previously reported, and give insight into how companies are navigating heightened scrutiny on data practices as abortion becomes increasingly criminalized in the U.S.
Oracle’s data platform doesn’t “permit customers to create datasets that are considered sensitive,” such as those relating to pregnancy or abortions or “function as a standalone marketplace for raw feeds of individuals’ location data,” Oracle Executive Vice President Ken Glueck wrote in a letter to members of Congress.
Amazon said that any data sold on its platform is anonymized, and that it will adhere to applicable state and local laws. A spokesperson for Trahan’s office said complying with local laws in this context could mean handing over digital evidence of an abortion under a court order.
Amazon and Oracle sell data products from thirdparty companies on their cloud marketplaces, including bulk location information harvested from mobile phones. Lawmakers have long sounded the alarm on the sensitivity of these data streams and calls for regulation have accelerated in the wake of the court’s decision.