Woman followed

Uterus surveillance. That’s how Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden described it. When health data is linked to location, authorities in states where abortion is banned could use the information to seek prosecution of women.

He sought to give people more protection under federal law. His proposal would be to require consent before health and location data could be sold.

ProPublica, the investigative journalism nonprofit, came out with a report last week that showed why a bill like Wyden’s matters.

“Online pharmacies that sell abortion pills are sharing sensitive data with Google and other third parties, which may allow law enforcement to prosecute those who use the medications to end their pregnancies,” ProPublica reported. “Using a tool created by the Markup, a nonprofit tech-journalism newsroom, ProPublica ran checks on 11 online pharmacies that sell abortion medication to reveal the web tracking technology they use. Late last year and in early January, ProPublica found web trackers on the sites of at least nine online pharmacies that provide pills by mail.”

Prosecutors could get subpoenas and potentially identify the users of the pills.

Fair? Unfair? Should the online pharmacies remove such tracking? Should Congress take action? What do you think?