Google to delete users' location history on US abortion clinic, fertility centre visits

Alphabet Inc’s Google announced on Friday that it would delete users’ location history when they visit abortion clinics, domestic violence shelters and other places where privacy is essential. Jen Fitzpatrick, a senior vice president at Google, said in a blog post published on July 1 that if the company’s system detects that an individual visited the said places, the location history would be deleted. She informed me that the update in the privacy policy regarding location history would reflect in the coming weeks. 

Fitzpatrick wrote, “Location History is a Google account setting that is off by default, and for those that turn it on, we provide simple controls like auto-delete so users can easily delete parts, or all, of their data at any time.”

“Some of the places people visit — including medical facilities like counseling centers, domestic violence shelters, abortion clinics, fertility centers, addiction treatment facilities, weight loss clinics, cosmetic surgery clinics, and others — can be particularly personal. Today, we’re announcing that if our systems identify that someone has visited one of these places, we will delete these entries from Location History soon after they visit,” she added.

Among several other updates, Google said that it would delete the location history of people visiting clinics related to sensitive health matters,  just a week after the United States Supreme Court made a groundbreaking decision of scraping women’s constitutional right to abortion and overturning Roe V Wade ruling of 1973. The SCOTUS decision sparked nationwide protests by activists as it would pave the way for dozens of states to ban or severely restrict the medical procedure.

Google’s announcement also follows the calls made by activists and pro-abortion politicians, who urged the tech giants to restrict the amount of information they collect. According to the activists, it would help individuals from keeping sensitive information regarding women’s health from being used by law enforcement for abortion investigations and prosecutions.

Fitzpatrick said Google takes data privacy ‘seriously’

Underscoring that Google has “strict policy” for user data privacy, Fitzpatrick wrote, “Google has a long track record of pushing back on overly broad demands from law enforcement, including objecting to some demands entirely.”

She also said, “To further promote transparency and control for users, we also recently introduced Play’s new data safety section that developers use to give people more information about how apps collect, share, and secure their data.”

“For Google Fit and Fitbit, we give users settings and tools to easily access and control their personal data, including the option to change and delete personal information, at any time. For example, Fitbit users who have chosen to track their menstrual cycles in the app can currently delete menstruation logs one at a time, and we will be rolling out updates that let users delete multiple logs at once,” the Google official explained.

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