We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: Lawmakers who support reproductive rights must recognize that abortion access and mass surveillance are incompatible. The systems built to track stolen cars and issue parking tickets have become tools to enforce the most personal and politically charged laws in the country.

In a chilling sign of how far law enforcement surveillance has encroached on personal liberties, 404 Media recently revealed that a sheriff’s office in Texas searched data from more than 83,000 automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras to track down a woman suspected of self-managing an abortion. The officer searched 6,809 different camera networks maintained by surveillance tech company Flock Safety, including states where abortion access is protected by law, such as Washington and Illinois. The search record listed the reason plainly: “had an abortion, search for female.”

  • jonne@infosec.pub
    161·
    5 days ago

    The issue is that this data is held by a private company, not the government, which is how governments can get around restrictions regarding searches and data collection. You also see this with ICE and border patrol just buying ‘marketing data’ from airlines to figure out who was on what flight.

    • TheObviousSolution@lemm.ee
      11·
      5 days ago

      I think that problem is due to nothing equivalent to GDPR, and privacy laws in the US that are handled at the state level, badly.