Big Tech’s Toxic Business Model Could Land Abortion Seekers in Jail. Here’s How to Stop Them.

Nicole Gill is Executive Director and Aditi Ramesh is a Policy Manager at Accountable Tech.  Protesters gather at the US Supreme Court after a report that the count would overturn Roe vs Wade, ending the constitutional right to abortion. May 3, 2022. Shutterstock The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade last summer created a devastating new reality for millions of Americans. In the last few weeks, a miscarrying woman was told to wait in her car outside a hospital until she was “crashing.” Another woman suffered permanent damage to her reproductive organs after being refused an abortion and going into sepsis. These scenes evoke the dark days prior to the legalization of abortion in America – but a lot has changed in the last 50 years.  For one, prosecutors looking to enforce restrictive abortion laws now have an ally they couldn’t have even imagined decades ago: Big Tech. Virtually everything we do online is tracked by companies like Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon, from what we buy to the news we read. This type of surveillance isn’t just a byproduct of these companies’ products — collecting and monetizing user data is a fundamental part of their business models. Now, it could land abortion-seekers in jail.  Take Google. More than 154 million people use Google Maps every month to help them navigate their lives. We all know how it works: you open the app, type in your destination, and hit “start” to begin your journey. Along the way,…Big Tech’s Toxic Business Model Could Land Abortion Seekers in Jail. Here’s How to Stop Them.