Google to Delete Visit Records of Abortion Clinics and Related Facilities Starting Next Week

Two days after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling overturning the Roe v. Wade precedent in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization case, abortion rights advocates held a protest in front of the Washington Federal Supreme Court on the 26th (local time). (Photo by Yonhap News)

[Asia Economy Reporter Tae-min Ryu] Google announced on the 1st (local time) that starting next week, it will delete location history when users visit related institutions such as abortion clinics or domestic violence shelters.

According to major foreign media, Jen Fitzpatrick, Senior Vice President of Google, revealed this policy through a blog post on the same day. Google decided to delete visit records not only for abortion clinics but also for other facilities that require privacy protection, such as domestic violence shelters, infertility centers, addiction treatment facilities, and weight loss centers. Vice President Fitzpatrick said, "If our system detects that someone has visited one of these facilities, we will delete that item from the records immediately after the visit."

This decision by Google came about a week after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 'Roe v. Wade' precedent, which recognized women's abortion rights as a constitutional right, on the 24th of last month. After the ruling, groups and politicians supporting abortion rights urged information technology companies like Google to reduce user data collection, arguing that online-collected information could be used for abortion investigations and prosecutions. Concerns that digital information could be used to track private matters such as abortion existed even before the Supreme Court ruling.

In May, the U.S. Democratic Party sent a letter to Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, urging him to stop data collection so that far-right extremists would not use smartphone location information to oppress users of reproductive healthcare services.