BIG BROTHER

Google Retains Abortion Clinic Visit Data It Promised to Delete: Report

The tech giant said last year that it would automatically remove such trips from users’ location history.

Google is still not consistently deleting location data when users visit abortion clinics despite giving assurances to the contrary, according to a Washington Post investigation. After concerns were raised that such data could be used in abortion prosecutions, Google said last July that it would delete abortion clinic visits from users’ location histories in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. But the Post found that the tech giant still retained the data in some visits on test runs to abortion clinics over the last few weeks. Google spokeswoman Genevieve Park didn’t address inconsistencies in the data tracking presented by the Post, instead saying: “If our systems identify that they have visited certain places that can be particularly personal—including medical facilities like counseling centers, domestic violence shelters, abortion clinics, fertility centers, addiction treatment facilities, weight loss clinics, cosmetic surgery clinics, and others—we will delete that entry from Location History soon after they visit.” Park did not clarify how Google identifies such personal locations or the timeframe in which the company is supposed to delete the data.