Dozens of Democratic lawmakers called on Google on Tuesday to stop collecting and storing user geolocation data that could be used to identify women seeking abortions.
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“In a world where abortion could be made illegal, we are concerned that Google’s software … will become tools for right-wing extremists who want to suppress people seeking health care. related to reproduction”, wrote 42 elected officials in an open letter addressed to Sundar Pichai, the leader of Google.
“Because Google keeps information on the geographic location of hundreds of millions of smartphone users, which it regularly shares with government agencies”, continue the political figures, led by Oregon Senator Ron Wyden and Anna Eshoo , a representative from California.
According to a leak obtained by Politico in early May of a draft judgment, the United States Supreme Court is preparing to rule that nothing in the US Constitution protects the right to abortion.
If this draft judgment were adopted, each American state would be free to prohibit or authorize abortions, while the historic decision “Roe v. Wade” of 1973 had forced them to make voluntary terminations of pregnancy (abortion) legal.
“Google had the credit of being one of the first companies in the United States to insist on obtaining a warrant before revealing geolocation data to law enforcement, but that’s not enough” , argue the elected Democrats.
They argue that anti-abortion prosecutors will be able to obtain the necessary warrants, if abortion becomes illegal.
“The only way to protect your customers’ location data from such shocking government surveillance is to not keep it at all,” they argue.
The internet giant did not react immediately to a request from AFP.
Susan Wojcicki, YouTube executive, said Tuesday morning that the Supreme Court’s proposed ruling was a “big step backwards for women,” from her personal perspective, but also a challenge for the YouTube video platform. California group.
She explained that the new legislation could affect decisions about which ads to accept or not, and introduce new misinformation risks.
“As we run a business that is focused on freedom of expression, we want to make sure that (…) everyone can express their opinion, as long as they respect our rules”, she indicated during a conference in Davos.
On Friday, sixteen Democratic senators called on the US competition authority to protect data privacy for people seeking abortions.