Privacy advocates are urging people to delete period tracking apps following SCOTUS' reversal of Roe V. Wade. Karissa Bell, senior editor at Engadget, joins Cheddar News to discuss post-Roe data privacy.

Between Bells

Privacy Advocates Urging People to Delete Period Tracking Apps

Welcome back to Between Bells, Everyone with abortion now outlawed in several states, activists and privacy advocates are urging users to delete period tracking apps from their devices. Since the Supreme Court's decision to overturn roe v wade information from the cycle tracking platforms could be used in criminal investigations against abortion seekers. A miss period or even an unlocked period could be used as evidence of a crime laying out this unsettling turn of events in a new article. The post road data privacy nightmare is way bigger than period tracking apps is our next guest, Karissa Bell, senior editor at Engadget Carisa, Welcome to the show, explain exactly how dangerous this could be for those using period tracking apps. Yeah, I mean I think like with so much, you know, with this sort of post roe reality is that we don't really know how bad this could get. But what we do know is that what privacy experts and you know activists have have warned about is that um you know, now that row has been overturned. You know, these apps that you know, so many people depend on use every month, might not have thought about previously. You know, these can now be a source, you know like that could feel a criminal investigation that potentially into your activities, like you lay out in your article, there's so much personal information on these apps, why aren't women protected by the Hippo law here? Well, you know, it's kind of like this weird gray area that a lot of these sort of health and wellness apps fall into. Is that a lot of them really market themselves as a tool for for your health. You know, maybe if you use a cycle tracking app, you could use information and share that with your your doctor and it could really have very helpful applications in a health setting. Um but they just they're not they don't fall out, they're not protected by Hipaa privacy laws. So kind of your sort of at the whim of the developer in terms of like what happens to your data, who they can share it with. Just like that. This was already an issue before roe v wade was overturned. But how likely is it Karissa that these women are prosecuted after pregnancies end? I mean we don't really know for sure like I said and I think one thing that's important to think about here is that it is so much more than just these apps. So um in researching this, I haven't heard of any specific cases where someone's cycle tracking app, for example, was used against them. But there have been cases where women were prosecuted just based on their text messages based on their browser history. You know, these other activities that we might not think about in these contacts, but that could just as easily make its way to law enforcement if they decide um to investigate you for something like this and it's not just a period tracking app that can be used by law enforcement. A recent investigation found anti abortion groups keep tabs on people seeking abortions on facebook for example, even despite Meadows rules against collecting data just like that. Could people search history be used against them? Yeah, I think it absolutely could. I mean there has already been at least one prominent case that I know of where a woman who had a miscarriage was you know investigated for a self you know the authorities thought that she had you know self induced an abortion um because she had searched, she had searched terms in history that you know said abortion pills things like that. Um there was no evidence that this had actually occurred, but just the fact that her search history had these terms was thought of sufficient evidence to continue this investigation in your research. Did you find any ways women can protect their privacy when it comes to this issue? Karissa. Yeah, I mean there's a few things, it's kind of like um you know these things that we talked about a lot with online privacy, use encrypted messaging apps for example is a big one. Try to use browsers that protect your privacy. You know, some of them have better track records and others generally trying to be careful like think about which apps might be using your location, how your phone might be using your location if you're going somewhere particularly sensitive. It might be best to leave your phone at home. Uh for example. Uh so you know there are like these kind of small steps we can take, but you know, the thing that a lot of privacy experts will, will tell you is that we really do need kind of more sweeping privacy legislation in this country, um, to really be able to be protected fully. I'm glad you mentioned that, that actually tease me up for my next question. What is the likelihood that we'll see lawmakers enact better privacy legislation, especially dealing with these kind of apps and the data that they're collecting? It's interesting because this is an issue where there actually has been some, some bipartisan support in terms of, you know, reigning in the amount of data that these platforms can collect, what they can use it for this issue of data brokers. You know, this is something that we've seen support for and there's been some various bills, I think there was one that was just recently introduced, specifically dealt with this issue of cycle tracking apps. Um, there's other legislation that's, that's more broad. Um, so I do think that we have seen support, I think it's going to be interesting, you know, to see how this is framed post road and if that support continues. But I think like a lot of these issues with tech policy regulations, like we have seen recently, some some support for both sides of the aisle on this. Well, such a fascinating article, I merging our viewers to read it. Thank you so much for the insight here, Karissa Bell, senior editor at Engadget. We appreciate your time.