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BOSTON (WBZNewsRadio) - Reproductive rights advocates have launched a new campaign that would ban the sale and trade of cellphone location data in Massachusetts, with the goal of strengthening patient protections in a post Roe v. Wade landscape.
Through a partnership with the ACLU of Massachusetts, Reproductive Equity Now and the Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts, the "Your Location: It's None of Their Business" aims to keep our most sensitive and intimate data, private. Every single day unregulated data brokers buy and sell this data, which can provide the buyer with information about where you live, eat, work, play and where you get your healthcare. There are currently no state or federal laws in place to protect consumers data.
The so-called Location Shield Act, sponsored by Rep. Kate Lipper-Garabedian and Senator Cynthia Creem, would ban companies from selling, leading, trading or renting cellphone location data.
“Our personal location information reveals the most sensitive and intimate things about each of us, and we all deserve to keep that information private,” said Carol Rose, Executive Director of the ACLU of Massachusetts. “Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe, states that ban abortion or gender-affirming care can purchase location data and use it to identify and prosecute people who travel to Massachusetts for health care. Massachusetts can, and should, continue to do all it can to protect patients, helpers, and providers by banning the sale of cellphone location information.”
Advocates feels the unregulated practice puts millions of Massachusetts residents and those who may be traveling to the state for reproductive healthcare, at risk.
“When a patient is seeking compassionate abortion care, the last thing they should have to think about is anti-abortion extremists—thousands of miles away—purchasing and tracking their every move. Our privacy and right to access the health care of our choosing is absolutely priceless, regardless of what data brokers might think,” said Rebecca Hart Holder, President of Reproductive Equity Now. “As far-right extremists ramp up their efforts to prosecute patients traveling for abortion, this legislation to prohibit the sale of cellphone location data will be critical to shield patients traveling to and from abortion clinics in Massachusetts. We can create a firewall to protect patients and ensure that our private location data never falls into the hands of anti-abortion extremists.”
A new poll from ACLU and Beacon Research, found 92-percent of Massachusetts voters support passing legislation to protect personal location data. What's more, by a 3-to-1 margin, voters believe the state has a responsibility to protect the privacy of it's residents.
“When Roe v. Wade was overturned, Massachusetts took quick, decisive action to strengthen reproductive rights and provider protections. We must continue to fight together because we cannot guarantee patients' freedom to seek health care safely in our state when cellphone location data can be sold to dangerous anti-abortion actors,” said Dr. Nate Horwitz-Willis, Executive Director of the Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts. “Massachusetts has the opportunity to strengthen our reproductive health protections by preventing the sale of personal location data before it's used to criminalize anyone for seeking legal abortion care in our state."
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