The case of Facebook’s parent company, Meta, turning over private message data to Nebraska investigators, who then used it to prosecute a teenage girl who induced an abortion, is the latest proof that our sense of privacy is an illusion.
Celeste Burgess and her mother, Jessica Burgess, have been charged with one felony count of prohibited acts with human skeletal remains, one misdemeanor count of concealing the death of another person and one misdemeanor count of false information. Jessica Burgess has also been charged with felony counts of inducing an illegal abortion and performing an abortion as someone other than a licensed physician.
Authorities say Celeste was 17 years old and 23 weeks pregnant when she and her mother used Facebook Messenger to purchase medicine designed to end a pregnancy. The police were following up on a tip when they requested the message data from Meta, Facebook’s parent company.
