In the wake of latest privateness issues post-Roe, the FTC has warned corporations and information brokers that it could crack down on any misuse of well being and site information. The company stopped wanting detailing any new steps to safeguard delicate reproductive well being information however burdened it could search out corporations that break present information privateness legal guidelines. In a brand new weblog submit, the FTC wrote that it was “committed to using the full scope of its legal authorities” to safeguard shopper privateness. It additionally famous that apps that observe intervals and fertility, in addition to any product that collects well being or location information might expose people to hurt, notably these searching for abortions.
“The Commission is committed to using the full scope of its legal authorities to protect consumers’ privacy. We will vigorously enforce the law if we uncover illegal conduct that exploits Americans’ location, health, or other sensitive data. The FTC’s past enforcement actions provide a roadmap for firms seeking to comply with the law,” wrote the company’s appearing affiliate director within the Division of Privacy and Identity Protection Kristin Cohen within the submit.
The FTC’s assertion arrives only some days after the Biden administration’s July eighth government order on abortion entry, by which it requested the FTC to take steps to guard abortion information privateness, together with launching a job pressure. In mild of the Dobbs ruling, digital privateness teams have warned that police can simply use location monitoring and different delicate information to prosecute these suspecting of getting an abortion in states the place it’s now unlawful.
Period-tracking apps are simply one of many many instruments that legislation enforcement businesses can use to construct a case in opposition to an individual suspected of getting an abortion. As each digital privateness teams have famous, health trackers, search histories, GPS map apps and virtually any on-line exercise might be truthful recreation for legislation enforcement in states with abortion bans. Location information can be misused. The FTC famous a 2017 Massachusetts case the place an organization despatched focused advertisements on abortion options to anybody who crossed a “digital fence” exterior an abortion clinic.
Perhaps for example of how aggressive it has been with apps that misused replica well being information previously, the FTC additionally talked about a settlement it reached final yr with fashionable period-tracking app Flo. The company had alleged that Flo shared delicate well being information with exterior events, regardless of promising to maintain such data non-public. As a end result, Flo agreed to acquire person consent previous to sharing data with exterior events and to launch an unbiased privateness evaluation. Flo is hardly the one reproductive well being app to share delicate person information. A May research of 20 completely different period-tracking apps by VPN firm Surfshark discovered that 9 shared information for third-party advertisements and 10 collected coarse location data.