Meta and Google are everywhere. Meta owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, controlling and observing the data you move through their services to serve up ads… and potentially give information to police. When it comes to healthcare privacy, Meta hasn’t always been on the right side. Numerous healthcare websites were found to have Meta’s tracking software embedded in places that gave the corporation access to people’s medical histories. The company hasn’t been keen on women’s rights either. Both from internal complaints about sexism, almost standard in the industry, but Meta takes it a step further. After the Supreme Court struck down Row v Wade, Meta banned discussion of abortion internally. They even banned it on the website, hiding posts that discussed the abortion pill. In August, Meta helped police arrest a mother and her daughter for an abortion.
Google, on the other hand, is most people’s window to the web. It’s the first place people look to access information online. From there, they find Google’s watchful eye as trackers report back on what interests a user has. Google has a sinister amount of data, not just your search history, your interests, but also where you’ve been thanks to on-by-default location tracking on Android devices and Google Maps. Went to an abortion clinic over state lines? Google will know. And they may not keep that information to themselves.
Privacy has been something we’ve taken for granted. Mostly because the consequences of our everyday lives weren’t criminal before. Now, for some, from women seeking healthcare to transgender people, everyday life and vital healthcare can be a crime. Now privacy matters. To you, not to corporations.
They don’t care one bit.
In This Article:
The Means to Your Data
These days, just about anyone could find out just about everything about you. It’s especially easier if you’re one of the corporations handling mountains of user data. Google’s data about location is so accurate that they can actually predict your whereabouts, even without a current GPS connection. Google has another tool called their “Sensor Vault.” It’s a searchable database of location history on their users. They have your search data, purchase histories, location history, communications through Google services, even potentially your email. With all of that information, it’s pretty easy to predict what you’re going across state lines for.
Amazon can track your purchase histories and any other credit card data they may purchase to complete your profile. Meta? Meta, who owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp has a look into your life that would shock you. Your searches on Facebook and Instagram, your comments, posts, likes, messages sent on Facebook Messenger and Instagram, and it’s even possible they could gleam some information from WhatsApp, even if messages themselves are encrypted. On top of all of that, Facebook has tracking on third party websites, and has even burrowed their way into hospital websites and private patient data portals.
Techie Meds
Online pharmacies present a unique issue as well. They may not collect your data for the sake of selling it, but they still collect your prescriptions and other information. They’ll notice when you need to order an abortion pill or Plan B. Some people turn to online pharmacies because they fear judgement, and may specifically order their “embarrassing” medications online, only to potentially expose that data. With laws attacking transgender people, online pharmacies, once a safe place to get medications related to transition, could become the first place police look. If police believe a company has the data they’ll need to make an arrest, they’ll request it, even if the reasoning is thin. More often than not, corporations will just hand that data over.
Of course, we can’t mention online medication without mentioning period trackers. Period trackers were one of the first things activists warned people about when abortion bans started creeping up across the U.S. If police can access that data, they can figure out when you’re pregnant, or if you’ve terminated a pregnancy. Tracking your period can be extremely useful, even vital in some cases. If that data lives somewhere that isn’t encrypted so only you can access it with a password every time, and unless you keep that password safe, law enforcement could easily use it against you.
Police Hunting for Data, Always Have Been
Google faces around 100,000 police requests for user data every year. They comply with about 80% of those requests. Facebook received 400,000 in a year, and complied with 75% of them. Any company that stores your data will likely receive countless requests. They’re not always targeted requests either. One involves “geofencing,” which is just getting a list of everyone who has been through a certain area. Another is a “Keyword Warrant,” which allows police to find everyone who may have searched for a particular term. Did you look up “abortion pill?” Perhaps, “How to tell your parents you’re trans?” Well, police can search for who asked those questions almost as easily as you searched for them.
Police requests are almost a formality at this point. All companies say they’ll comply with the law. Google says that, due to California law, they won’t comply with abortion investigations. But that’s not how things work out. Police used a woman’s phone to look up her search history on Google, showing she searched for an abortion pill. Once they had the phone, they didn’t need Google’s permission to get the data, they had everything Google had. Because Google stores this information on you, they can’t even protect it if they wanted to.
Largely? They don’t want to. Why would they?
No Motivation to Protect
“There’s thousands of requests for every one of those cases, and there’s thousands of other decisions that the company made to just turn over the data because it’s just easier, quicker that way. So law enforcement knows that they can make requests of social media, including court requests that do not comply with law, and expect to get most of them honored simply because that is the path of least resistance for the social-media services.”
– Eric Goldman, lawyer and law professor at Santa Clara University School of Law and Co-Director of High Tech Law Institute
There is no profit-based reason to fight back against police requests. Lawsuits to protect user data could cost the company millions. Apple stood up to the FBI when it was trying to build a backdoor, but that came down to two issues. First, the FBI was asking to dismantle virtually all security on all devices. Secondly, Apple sells phones based on privacy and security. They’d lose that niche if the FBI made hacking into an iOS device child’s play. For most corporations, there just isn’t a good financial reason to look into requests more deeply.
Take Meta’s situation with a mother and daughter in Nebraska. Police didn’t tell Facebook they were looking into an abortion case. That gave Facebook plausible deniability. Facebook still handed over messages showing the mother and daughter discussing the abortion pill. They had that data, they knew what the investigation was about. They could have fought the request. Meta didn’t fight back. Legally, they didn’t have to, and there was simply no profit in fighting back.
With most companies responding to police requests most of the time, over three quarters of all cases in some companies, police don’t have to worry about a fight. Corporations don’t have to care about public outcry because there simply hasn’t been a demand for privacy. However, that’s because people have been comfortable. “Just don’t do anything wrong and you’ll be safe.” But now? Now healthcare is illegal. Now simply living as your true self could be illegal. It could get you fired, or, in some states, even arrested. That’s just the beginning. With people able to end up behind bars because of a Google search or photo they sent a friend over Instagram, they might start to care about privacy a little more.
We Need Legislation Protecting Privacy
Companies profit from your data. As long as they can gobble up that data and make money from it, they will. That data will be accessible to police either through you or through them. We wouldn’t stand for police being able to walk into a library and ask for everyone who had spent time in a particular section, or checked out a particular set of books, so why do we allow it when it comes to tech? Perhaps it’s because people haven’t understood just how much information companies are collecting and handing over.
The law is the only thing that can protect us. It’s why Google can’t hand over data if police specifically ask for information regarding an abortion, because abortion-related healthcare privacy is a protected right in California. We need laws to enshrine our rights. Corporations have no reason to protect civil rights, and police enforcing draconian laws don’t either. If we don’t write the right to our own privacy in stone, we simply do not have it.
How to Protect Yourself
I write privacy-focused guides all the time. So, here are just a few quick tips to help you protect yourself:
- Do your searches on DuckDuckGo, a privacy-focused search engine
- Also, consider using the DuckDuckGo browser, which has a button to “burn” all of your data when you leave the app
- Use private browsing, even if you think you’re safe
- Stop using insecure messaging. Facebook, Instagram, potentially even WhatsApp, could have data collection. Your text messages? Super easy to log. Just use Signal.
- Use a VPN. ProtonVPN or NordVPN are good options
- Turn off Location History and Web & App Activity in your Google Settings
- Consider using an iPhone instead of Android, and ditching Google as much as you can
- Use a password manager and 2 factor authentication everywhere you can
- Do not share or post about anything regarding your travels. Just in general. Stop that. Oh, you want me to know when you’re away from your home and fancy PS5? Thanks!
Most important of all? Pay attention to politics. Look to politicians who are looking to take on “big tech,” who want to specifically pass privacy laws. Because that’s what we need: new privacy laws. Those will protect people seeking an abortion, transgender healthcare, or just their shopping habits they don’t want Google, Facebook, and Amazon to all know about. There are certainly things you can do to improve your privacy, but, until we have laws enshrining privacy as a right, we will never have a truly private moment again.
Sources:
- Bobby Allyn, NPR
- Jeffrey Dastin, Reuters
- Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert, Business Insider