The Growing Intersection of Reproductive Rights and Digital Rights: 2024 in Review
Dear reader of our blog, surely by now you know the format: as we approach the end of the year, we look back on our work, count our wins, learn from our misses, and lay the groundwork strategies for a better future. It’s been an intense year in the fight for reproductive rights and its intersections with digital civil liberties. Going after cops illegally sharing location data, fighting the data broker industry, and building coalitions with the broader movement for reproductive justice—we’ve stayed busy.
The Fight Against Warrantless Access to Real-Time Location Tracking
The location data market is an unregulated nightmare industry that poses an existential threat to everyone’s privacy, but especially those embroiled in the fight for reproductive rights. In a recent blog post, we wrote about the particular dangers posed by LocateX, a deeply troubling location tracking tool that allows users to see the precise whereabouts of individuals based on the locations of their smartphone devices. cops shouldn’t be able to buy their way around having to get a warrant for real-time location tracking of anyone they please, regardless of the context. In regressive states that ban abortion, however, the problems with LocateX illustrate just how severe the issue can be for such a large population of people.
Building Coalition Within Digital Civil Liberties and Reproductive Justice
Part of our work in this movement is recognizing our lane: providing digital security tips, promoting the rights to privacy and free expression, and making connections with community leaders to support and elevate their work. This year we hosted a livestream panel featuring various next-level thinkers and reproductive justice movement leaders. Make sure to watch it if you missed it! Recognizing and highlighting our shared struggles, interests, and avenues for liberation is exactly how movements are fought for and won.
The Struggle to Stop Cops from Illegally Sharing ALPR data
It’s been a multi–year battle to stop law enforcement agencies from illegally sharing out-of-state ALPR (automatic license plate reader) data. Thankfully this year we were able to celebrate a win: a grand jury in Sacramento made the motion to investigate two police agencies who have been illegally sharing this type of data. We’re glad to declare victory, but those two agencies are far from the only problem. We hope this sets a precedent that cops aren’t above the law and will continue to fight for just that. This win will help us build momentum to continue this fight into the coming year.
Sharing What We Know About Digital Surveillance Risks
We’ll be the first to tell you that expertise in digital surveillance threats always begins with We’ve learned a lot in the few years we’ve been researching the privacy and security risks facing this issue space, much of it gathered from conversation and trainings with on-the-ground movement workers. We gathered what we’ve learned from that work and distilled it into an accessible format for anyone that needs it. Behind the scenes, this research continues to inform the hands-on digital security trainings we provide to activists and movement workers.
As we proceed into an uncertain future where abortion access will continue to be a difficult struggle, we’ll continue to do what we do best: standing vigilant for peoples’ right to privacy, fighting bad Internet laws, protecting free speech online, and building coalition with others. Thank you for your support.
This article is part of our Year in Review series. Read other articles about the fight for digital rights in 2024.
