MassLive | Cell phone data privacy is the latest arena in abortion rights advocacy in Mass.

By Juliet Schulman-Hall
Story Originally Appeared in MassLive

Abortion rights advocacy is moving into a new arena in the year since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade — cellphone data privacy.

Reproductive advocacy groups including Reproductive Equity Now, the ACLU of Massachusetts, and Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts are working to support the “Location Shield Act,” also known as Bill H.357, that would ban the selling, leasing, trading or renting of cellphone location data.

If the the legislation passes, Massachusetts would be the first in the nation to protect cellphone users’ location data, according to Kade Crockford, ACLU of Massachusetts’ Technology for Liberty program director.

“It implicates all of us,” Crockford said. “I think that if you were to ask people, is it OK if I just follow you around and broadcast live everywhere that you go for the rest of your life, people would be very uncomfortable with that.”

Any individual located in Massachusetts would be covered under the Location Shield Act, even if the individual lived in another state, making the bill potentially beneficial for individuals traveling from states such as Texas where strict abortion restrictions are in place, said Rebecca Hart Holder, president of Reproductive Equity Now.

Individuals traveling from out of state would have their cellphone location data shared as normal until they hit Massachusetts state lines, according to state Rep. Kate Lipper-Garabedian, one of the bill’s sponsors.

The bill, however, also has several limitations, allowing location data to be shared for a “permissible purpose” without user consent, including for law enforcement purposes such a federal, state, or local government agency serving a warrant or in response to an emergency service agency, an emergency alert, a 911 communication, or any other communication reporting an imminent threat to human life, according to the bill.

Although abortion is legal and protected in Massachusetts, the bill would allow healthcare decisions to become more privatized, according to Lipper-Garabedian.

“Yes, it’s (abortion) a protected choice that you have here, but it may not be something you — it’s certainly not something that everyone needs to know about,” Lipper-Garabedian said.

Location sharing, according to Hart Holder, puts those seeking and traveling for abortion care in particular instances of prosecution and harassment.

Hart Holder said the bill is the second step to protecting patients and providers post-Roe, the first being a abortion protections bill which was passed in July of 2022 to protect patients and providers from out-of-state litigation.

Although the Attorney General’s Office would be the ones to regulate and enforce the Location Shield Act, cellphone users could also create lawsuits against an app provider or software broker if the individual believes they might be improperly selling location data.

In order to consent to location data sharing, Lipper-Garabedian said the disclosure has to be unambiguous and written for the average consumer — not hidden in a terms and conditions agreement.

“This bill doesn’t stop the collection of this data. It doesn’t stop companies from using it to provide people with services that they want. It really just aims to stop a very predatory industry that frankly, we’ve already seen abused by far-right extremists,” Crockford said, referencing an article from the Washington Post that found a Catholic group paid to see app data of priests using gay dating and hookup apps.

Hart Holder also referenced a Vice article that found a location data firm offered users the ability to see where Planned Parenthood abortion clinics may live, distributing heat maps and data on their site.

“The industry will say that this information is ‘anonymized,’ but there’s actually no way to anonymize location data because it shows where someone lives and works, which means it’s very, very easy to re-identify that information and connect a person’s data to their real name and other sensitive personal information about them,” Crockford said.

According to research conducted by ACLU of Massachusetts and Beacon Research, 92% of Massachusetts voters support the passage of a law to prohibit the sale of location sharing in the state.

“I do think that legislators are worried about harassment and targeted litigation against people who are coming to the state for both abortion care and gender affirming care. So this is an attempt to try to protect their privacy,” said Carrie Baker, a women and gender studies professor at Smith College.

State Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa said she is supportive of the act. However, she believes Massachusetts should go further to protect the rights of Massachusetts residents and those traveling to Massachusetts.

“I think we should follow in the footsteps of of Washington and Connecticut and other states and focus on health data privacy, because not only should your location not be shared, but what you’re looking up also should not be shared,” Sabadosa said. “Our physical and our mental health shouldn’t be up for sale, especially if it can be connected back to you.”

Sabadosa is working on an act which would prohibit the sale of consumer health data unless the sale was disclosed to the consumer and consented to.

“It really puts the power in the hands of the consumer, which I would argue is where it belongs since it’s your own data,” Sabadosa said.

Although Crockford believes the Location Shield Act is only one of many holes in Massachusetts privacy laws, the ACLU of Massachusetts believes it is crucial for the act to pass to “outlaw this practice once and for all.”