Google has announced it will delete sensitive user location history — most crucially, including data related to visits to abortion clinics, domestic violence shelters and addiction treatment centers — beginning in the next few weeks.
Jen Fitzpatrick (senior vice president, tech company) SubmittedThis blog post explains how to do it. “if our systems identify that someone has visited one of these places, we will delete these entries from Location History soon after they visit.”
An update to Google Fit, Fitbit and Google Fit will soon enable users to delete multiple periods logs at once.
This announcement comes just one week after the Supreme Court reaffirmed its decision. Roe v. Wade – 6-3 vote — 5 justices voted outright to overturn Roe, while Chief Justice Roberts concurred with their decision upholding a draconian Mississippi anti-abortion law but suggested he would have avoided outright ending Roe — prompting more than a dozen states to begin the process of banning abortions, and in some cases, making it a criminal penalty to receive or provide one. Supporters of the abortion rights that were sabotaged by the decision noted that all justices who voted for Roe to be overturned, except Clarence Thomas (who was not elected), were appointed by presidents who lost their popular vote.
Many social media users urged the New York Times to remove period tracking apps from their accounts in the wake of the seismic decision. reported that other digital data — such as search history for abortion pills or texts to friends — could be used for surveillance.
Google, along with other data-driven conglomerates has been Under firefor digital surveillance and user data collection. Fitzpatrick wrote that the company would continue “delivering robust privacy protections for people who use our products, and we will continue to look for new ways to strengthen and improve these protections,”In addition to “pushing back”Opposing to data requests by law enforcement
