Abortion providers taking steps to protect patients’ digital privacy

Amid uncertainty around Roe v. Wade, some abortion providers are taking steps to protect patients’ data over concerns it could be misused for surveillance and future prosecution, NBC News reports. Some providers are using encrypted messaging applications and virtual meetings and phone calls instead of emails and texts. “There’s a massive amount of digital evidence that could be used to infer circumstantially that an abortion happened, and I think that’s what a lot of people are fearing and paying attention to,” Ford Foundation Tech Fellow Cynthia Conti-Cook said.