A year ago this Saturday, the Supreme Court’s Dobbs abortion ruling overturned Roe v. Wade. This decision deprived millions of people of a fundamental right. As we wrote then, it also underscored the importance of fair and meaningful protections for data privacy. In the past year, EFF staff have worked with reproductive justice and civil liberties organizations to protect and advocate for the digital rights of people seeking or supporting reproductive care; here are some highlights from just the past month.
Right now, EFF is a proud sponsor—along with If/When/How and ACLU California Action—of Assemblymember Mia Bonta (D-Oakland)’s A.B. 793. This bill would protect people seeking abortion and gender-affirming care from dragnet-style digital surveillance. AB 793 targets a type of dragnet surveillance that can compel tech companies to search their records and reveal the identities of all people who have been in a certain location or looked up a particular keyword online. These demands, known as “reverse demands,” “geofence warrants,” or “keyword warrants,” enable local law enforcement in states across the country to request the names and identities of all people whose digital data shows they’ve spent time near a California abortion clinic or searched for information about gender-affirming care online.
A coalition of more than 50 reproductive justice, civil liberties, LGBTQI+ and privacy groups are supporting the bill; it is also supported by Google and the Law Enforcement Action Partnership. However, the bill has faced opposition from other law enforcement lobbyists and faces a difficult path in the California Senate. If you live in California and support the privacy rights of people seeking reproductive and gender-affirming care, please tell your lawmakers that you care about this issue:
Support A.B. 793
A.B. 793 builds on some important first steps California took to step up protections around reproduct
[…]
Content was cut in order to protect the source.Please visit the source for the rest of the article.
Read the original article: