Many users of apps that track location data will have unwittingly agreed to allow the developers behind such apps to sell this data on to third parties.ĭevelopers of apps - such as weather apps, prayer apps or even menstrual cycle tracking apps - install software development kits (SDKs) in their applications, that sends location data to companies for a fee.
SafeGraph obtains location data from run-of-the mill applications on people's smart phones. While SafeGraph has said it would stop selling location data relating to visitors of family planning clinics, the report has raised fears that other data brokers could also sell such data. Vice News reported that it had purchased data from SafeGraph that specifically related to people who had visited abortion clinics. If a user gives permission to an app on their cell phone to track this data, and also gives permission for that location data to be sold, third parties can then purchase it for their own use.ĭata broker companies purchase this data from the app developers and re-package it for a number of purposes, such as marketing and advertising - and sell it on further to other companies.īut if they can afford it, the data can be purchased and then used by everyone - including law enforcement and members of the public. This can include location tracking, which records where a person has been with their cell phone and when - down to individual buildings. Smartphones collect a vast amount of data about their users, which can be sold on to third parties. They could also potentially use it to identify clinics providing abortions, with the United States having a history of attacks on family planning clinics. Location data would be able to track women making such trips, with Vice's investigation raising fears that anti-abortion vigilantes could target women making cross-border journeys to abortion clinics in different states. Should the Supreme Court follow through with its draft, it is expected women seeking abortions in states where it is banned will travel across borders to undergo the procedure - something anti-abortion activists and politicians they will try to ban. Wade decision and allow individual states to ban the procedure - leaked to the public on Monday. Vice's report came after a Supreme Court draft opinion - that would overturn the landmark Roe v. However, the report has raised concerns that other brokers could sell phone data of women that could later be treated as evidence in the events that abortion becomes a criminal offence, or that could be used by anti-abortion vigilantes.įor just $160, Vice's Motherboard said it had purchased a week's worth of data that includes more than 600 Planned Parenthood locations from the data company that could have just as easily been purchased by anti-abortion vigilantes. It said that some, but not all, of the locations provided abortions for women.įollowing the report, SafeGraph said it had stopped selling location data on visits to abortion clinics, with Auren Hoffman - the company's CEO - saying: 'I think it's good that we were called out.' Motherboard, Vice's tech investigation team, said SafeGraph treated Planned Parenthood like a 'brand', and that many of its 'customers' could be tracked when visiting one of the abortion provider's locations.įor just $160, Motherboard said it had purchased a week's worth of data - that includes more than 600 Planned Parenthood locations from the data company - that could have just as easily been purchased by anti-abortion vigilantes. Vice News reported that it purchased the data from SafeGraph, a tech company that obtains location data from every-day apps installed on people's smartphones. The data up for sale can show details such as where people visiting family planning centers - including Planned Parenthood clinics - came from, how long they spent there, and where they went afterwards. A technology firm has been caught selling phone location data of people who visited abortion clinics for $160, raising fears that women could be targeted by pro-life activists in the wake of the leaked Supreme Court 'Roe vs Wade' draft opinion.