Article Published: July 1, 2022
Written By: Geoffrey A. Fowler for The Washington Post
We the users want Google to delete our data. Our rights depend on it.
This is a moment I’ve long worried would arrive. The way tens of millions of Americans use everyday Google products has suddenly become dangerous. Following the Supreme Court decision to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling, anything Google knows about you could be acquired by police in states where abortion is now illegal. A search for “Plan B,” a ping to Google Maps at an abortion clinic or even a message you send about taking a pregnancy test could all become criminal evidence.
There is something Google could do about this: Stop collecting — and start deleting — data that could be used to prosecute abortions. Yet so far, Google and other Big Tech companies have committed to few product changes that might endanger their ability to profit off our personal lives. Nor have they publicly committed to how they might fight legal demands related to prosecuting abortions.
So what are the most urgent kinds of data Google should stop collecting? I spoke to privacy advocates to start a list of demands.
“It is their responsibility as a company to keep people’s data secure — but as it currently stands, it shifts the work onto the user to figure out how to delete their data,” said Jelani Drew-Davi, campaigns director of Kairos, a left-leaning digital advocacy group.
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