2023 will be The year that the battle for data ownership took place on the streets.
U.S. Supreme Court abolished Roe sues Wade has politicized the female body—and not just in America. When the ruling was debated in Westminster, several UK MPs took the opportunity to question women’s body autonomy.
The reaction of every woman I know – and many men – is instinctive and instinctive. We are being transported back—to the 70s or earlier.
But there is a difference. In those times, we didn’t have artificial intelligence and big data. We are not digital.
We are all digital creatures now. It’s been over a decade since story broke down how the Target supermarket knew a teen was pregnant before her parents knew, based on what she was buying. Since then, think of the huge “advancements” in algorithms, data collection, and ad technology. The law has not kept up.
There are many very smart people in the tech industry, but their approach to data trading is driven more by profit than by principle. The Supreme Court ruling politicized the data women generate about our bodies, putting it at the heart of one of the most polarizing and pernicious political divisions. My prediction is that 2023 will bring the data rights debate into the real world.
Original Roe sues Wade judgment is based on the idea of privacy. Its repeal would raise further questions about privacy in the digital world.
Even before fish eggs has been taken down, many are concerned about the apps people use to track their time. It can be an offense to not become pregnant—if you have become pregnant recently—information about your period will become evidence for prosecution.
We have seen women convicted of miscarriages. States will subpoena the data in favor of prosecuting abortion providers and clients. Additionally, states like Texas and Oklahoma have “bounty hunter” laws that allow individuals to pursue women who have had abortions, which can fuel digital stalking.
Women are moving from time-tracking apps with known data issues, such as Flo, to apps that promise greater privacy, such as Stardust, despite promises of rights Their privacy remains unproven.
But the problem isn’t limited to menstruating apps: Any app that monitors your temperature, for example, could have data that infers your fertility status. And what about the inferences made from what you buy (e.g. Target whether women buy scented moisturizers) or what interests you? (Google announced it will remove visits to abortion clinics, but what about searches for abortion clinic locations?)
In fact, tech companies will almost certainly comply with state law unless there is an alternative federal regulation. That means handing over information as required by a court order. Given the virulence of the abortion debate, we could see an arms race in terms of law enforcement in US states.
Deleting apps periodically is not enough. Your phone, the websites you visit, the other apps you run—all monitor you. Even in the UK, it is perfectly legal to sell this data if it has been aggregated and is believed to be anonymous. Being a computer scientist Latanya Sweeney As famously suggests, the term “anonymous tuple” should have “fake” in front. Even most deleted data can be recovered.
Essentially, the business model of the entire “legitimate” website is meant to understand you well enough to sell you what you might want to buy. And pregnancy affects your future purchases.
Honestly an engineer and tech evangelist, I’ve long been troubled by the lack of individual autonomy over the digital footprint we all leave behind. I predict we will see women and their allies take to the streets in 2023, demanding control of our data as a means of controlling our bodies.
