Letter asks Apple, Google to stop apps from collecting data that could ID women seeking abortions

A group of  US senators is urging the CEOs of both Apple and Google to prohibit the apps in their app stores from collecting data that could be used to identify women seeking abortions, according to CNET.

Today’s letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai , signed by five Democratic and independent senators, comes in the wake of a leaked draft of an upcoming majority opinion that indicates that the Supreme Court plans to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision establishing the constitutional right to an abortion.

Those who signed the letters are concerned that anti-abortion prosecutors and others will try to access and leverage personal information — including data related to location, online activity, health and biometrics — “in ways that threaten the wellbeing of those exercising their right to choose.”

Many apps in both Apple’s and Google’s respective stores routinely collect this kind of data, then sell it to brokers, the senators write. And there’s nothing stopping those brokers from sharing or selling that data to prosecutors or “even vigilantes,” the letter says.