After Roe, Dems seek probe of tech's use of personal data

WASHINGTON >> With the Supreme Court ending the constitutional protections for abortion, four Democratic lawmakers are asking federal regulators to investigate Apple and Google for allegedly deceiving millions of mobile phone users by enabling the collection and sale of their personal data to third parties.

The decision Friday by the court's conservative majority to overturn Roe v. Wade is expected to lead to abortion bans in about half the states. Privacy experts say that could make women vulnerable because their personal data could be used to surveil pregnancies and shared with police or sold to vigilantes. Online searches, period apps, fitness trackers and advice helplines could become rich data sources for such surveillance efforts.

The request for an investigation of the two California-based tech giants came Friday in a letter to Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan. It was signed by Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Cory Booker of New Jersey, and Rep. Sara Jacobs of California. It was sent shortly before the Supreme Court announced its decision overturning the 1973 precedent and noted that the court was likely to do so.

“Individuals seeking abortions and other reproductive healthcare will become particularly vulnerable to privacy harms, including through the collection and sharing of their location data,” the lawmakers said in the letter. “Data brokers are already selling, licensing and sharing the location information of people that visit abortion providers to anyone with a credit card.”

They said prosecutors in states where abortion becomes illegal could soon be able to obtain warrants for location information about anyone who has visited an abortion provider.