After reports revealed this month that Facebook handed over to law enforcement messages between a Nebraska teenager and her mother about the teen’s pregnancy loss, the company released a statement claiming ignorance about the nature of the investigation. “The warrants did not mention abortion at all. Court documents indicate that police were at that time investigating the alleged illegal burning and burial of a stillborn infant,” the company wrote.
But that argument would set a disturbing precedent. Tech companies cannot be allowed to hide behind the omission of the word “abortion” to abandon their responsibility to protect people’s sensitive data.
With federal protections for reproductive rights rolled back, data privacy protections are more important than ever for health care and abortion access. Facebook and other tech companies routinely cooperate with police demands for information they collect, including messages and keyword searches. For the Nebraska case, Facebook claimed it wasn’t aware that the police were seeking information relevant to a person’s abortion. That raises the question: What would Facebook have done if the warrant included the word “abortion”?
