Tech giants brace for legal mess of abortion data subpoenas

Google on July 1 said it will automatically delete location-tracking records of user visits to sensitive places, including abortion clinics, and will make it easier to delete period logs from its Fitbit app. — AFP

Technology giants including Apple Inc, Microsoft Corp and Google, facing questions about whether they’d hand over users’ personal data to US authorities pursuing evidence on abortion seekers, are bracing for the multi-state legal quagmire that will govern privacy in a post-Roe world.

From map searches to private messages, a trove of information stored in the companies’ data centres could be used as a digital trail of breadcrumbs linking a patient to the termination of a pregnancy, a procedure being restricted in multiple US states, after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.