Key Points
- Google has announced changes to location privacy.
- It will now delete users' history when they visit abortion clinics.
Google has announced it would delete users' location history when they visit abortion clinics, domestic violence shelters and other places where privacy is sought.
"If our systems identify that someone has visited one of these places, we will delete these entries from Location History soon after they visit," Jen Fitzpatrick, a senior vice president at Google, wrote in a blog post.
"This change will take effect in the coming weeks."
Google will also not store location data from places such as such as fertility centres, addiction treatment facilities and weight loss clinics.
The announcement comes a week after the US Supreme Court made the decision to overturn Roe v Wade, ending constitutional protection for the right to abortion.
This lead a dozen states to ban or severely restrict the procedure and prompted mass protests across the country.
Earlier, University of Sydney law professor Kimberlee Weatherall, who also works in emerging technologies, told SBS News users' online data could be used to indicate whether a person had sought an abortion.
"That could include GPS data that indicated whether someone had been close to or visited a family planning clinic or an abortion clinic," she said.
"There's an awful lot of data on people's devices ... to prove the case. And if that data exists, then police and prosecutors do have the means to try and get that data by requesting it from the various organisations that hold that data."
Activists and politicians have been calling on Google and other tech giants to limit the amount of information they collect to avoid it being used by law enforcement for abortion investigations and prosecutions.
Digital activists have also been offering advice for users, urging them to take steps such as using encrypted messaging services, opting for more private browsers, and utilising tools such as virtual private networks (VPN) to hide their location.
In her blog post, Ms Fitzpatrick told readers protecting users' privacy and securing their data was "core to Google's work".
"Google has a long track record of pushing back on overly broad demands from law enforcement, including objecting to some demands entirely," she wrote.
"We take into account the privacy and security expectations of people using our products, and we notify people when we comply with government demands."
Concerns over smartphone data and reproductive rights arose even before the Supreme Court ruling, when several conservative US states in recent months passed laws that give members of the public the right to sue doctors who perform abortions, or anyone who helps facilitate them.
That led a group of Democrats in May to send a letter to Google chief executive Sundar Pichai, asking him to stop collecting smartphone location data lest it become "a tool for far-right extremists looking to crack down on people seeking reproductive health care."
