Google to delete consumer location historical past on US abortion clinic visits | World News

Google introduced Friday it will delete customers' location historical past after they go to abortion clinics, home violence shelters and different locations the place privateness is sought.

"If our methods determine that somebody has visited considered one of these locations, we'll delete these entries from Location Historical past quickly after they go to," Jen Fitzpatrick, a senior vp at Google, wrote in a weblog publish. "This alteration will take impact within the coming weeks."

Different locations from which Google won't retailer location information embrace fertility facilities, habit remedy amenities, and weight reduction clinics.

The announcement comes per week after the US Supreme Court docket made the tectonic determination to strip American ladies of constitutional rights to abortion, main a dozen states to ban or severely prohibit the process and prompting mass protests throughout the nation.

Activists and politicians have been calling on Google and different tech giants to restrict the quantity of data they gather to keep away from it being utilized by regulation enforcement for abortion investigations and prosecutions.

Fitzpatrick additionally sought to reassure customers that the corporate takes information privateness critically.

"Google has a protracted monitor document of pushing again on overly broad calls for from regulation enforcement, together with objecting to some calls for solely," she wrote.

"We take note of the privateness and safety expectations of individuals utilizing our merchandise, and we notify individuals after we adjust to authorities calls for."

Issues over smartphone information and reproductive rights arose even earlier than the Supreme Court docket ruling, when a number of conservative US states in current months handed legal guidelines that give members of the general public the appropriate to sue docs who carry out abortions -- or anybody who helps facilitate them.

That led a gaggle of prime Democratic lawmakers in Could to ship a letter to Google chief govt Sundar Pichai, asking him to cease amassing smartphone location information lest it turn into "a device for far-right extremists seeking to crack down on individuals looking for reproductive well being care."