TECH GROUP RAISE DATA PRIVACY CONCERNS

A technology trade organization is pushing the Justice Department (DOJ) to reevaluate its position on electronic communications privacy to protect women seeking to obtain an abortion.

Elizabeth Banker, vice president of legal advocacy for the Chamber of Progress, sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday to urge the DOJ to support the protection of private data from “unjustified law enforcement intrusions.”

The letter states that federal prosecutors’ repeated arguments in court to obtain data held by third-party service providers violate the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Banker argued that these data seizures could put people who are using the internet to search for and schedule abortion appointments at risk of states’ threats to prosecute health care providers performing abortions and the people getting them.