Google made a promise in July 2022 to remove location data of users who visited abortion clinics. However, little progress has been made in fulfilling this promise. This move would make it more difficult for law enforcement to use this information to investigate and prosecute people seeking abortions in states where abortion is banned or restricted. Recent research shows that Google still retains location history data in 50% of cases.
Google originally made this promise shortly after the Supreme Court’s decision to end federal abortion protections. The company stated it would remove entries for locations considered “private” or sensitive, including “health care facilities such as counseling centers, domestic violence shelters, and abortion clinics.” However, as of now, there has been no implementation of this policy. A study conducted by tech advocacy group Accountable Tech found that Google does not mask location data in all cases, even after claiming to prioritize user privacy and implement changes to its location retention policy “as promised” in early 2022.
Accountable Tech’s latest study revealed that while Google’s location retention rates had improved slightly, the company was still not deleting location history in all cases as promised. Google Maps’ Director of Products, Marlo McGriff, disputed this finding and stated that any claims of non-compliance are false.
Researchers used her latest Android device to guide her to an abortion clinic and tested what location data it stored about her trip in the latest study. The study also found that Google still holds data on the location search queries and other criminal data as well, from emails to Google search data. Law enforcement’s use of reverse search warrants and geofence location warrants have raised new concerns about user data privacy.
Recently, Google announced plans to change the way it stores location history data for all its users. This change includes storing location data on users’ devices by default and encrypting and deleting all location data backed up to Google’s cloud storage after three months. However, Accountable Tech remains skeptical of Google’s promises to protect location data, based on its history of unfulfilled commitments.
Source: www.theguardian.com
