Paper Title: How Location Tracking Compromises Safety for Women

-- By SabrinaInoue - 06 May 2024

Section I - Introduction

For many people, location tracking has become an ever present technology that has found its way to engrain itself in our lives. Find My Friends is a built-in Apple app that allows users to see where their friends or family are at all times, with their permission. Women often use location tracking for safety reasons by sending their location to a trusted friend when they are alone or meeting someone new in case something goes wrong. However, reports have increasingly started to show the negative repercussions of location tracking, specifically as it relates to women. Two examples below demonstrate the significant gaps in privacy protection for women who are attempting to separate from abusive partners, and women seeking abortions.

Section II - Smart Cars and Abusive Relationships

Reports on location tracking in new “smart” cars have shown that they can compromise the safety of women attempting to flee their abusive partners. The New York Times reported that a woman who had obtained a restraining order against her husband was still able to be tracked by him through the connected app because his name was on the loan and title, even though the woman was the one making payments and had been granted sole use of the car during divorce proceedings. She contacted the car company, Mercedes, and explained her situation, but they told her that there was nothing they could do because technically her husband was the customer. Another woman reported that her abusive husband was able to track her through the Tesla app and sued them for negligence for continuing to provide her husband with the location data. Due to these reports, some action has been taken at the state and federal level. California lawmakers have proposed several bills that include ending tracking for domestic violence survivors, and the FCC has also been investigating this issue. However, these proposals still need to be passed into law. Although car companies appear to be open to changing their location tracking policies, the only way to ensure that these changes will occur is to pass laws in order to hold these companies accountable.

Section III - Smart Phones and Abortion Criminalization

Location tracking has also allowed law enforcement to discover when someone gets an abortion, which has become increasingly relevant as more states pass anti-abortion laws after Roe v. Wade was overturned. Law enforcement agencies are now utilizing location tracking data in order to determine if someone gets an abortion and are frequently able to do this without a warrant by buying the data from data brokers. An Oregon senator recently disclosed that vendor Near Intelligence “allegedly gathered location data of people’s visits to nearly 600 Planned Parenthood locations across 48 states, without consent” and then “sold that data to an anti-abortion group, which used it in a massive anti-abortion ad campaign.” Law enforcement can also obtain the data through subpoenaing the tech company, which only requires “reasonable suspicion” as opposed to the more demanding “probable cause” required for a warrant. Some states have taken action to better protect people seeking abortions. California has enacted several laws that prevent California companies from sharing abortion data with out of state entities, as well as disclosing patients’ private communication regarding healthcare that is legally protected in the state. Massachusetts lawmakers have also proposed a similar law. However, this still leaves those who are in states where abortion has been banned with little protection, unless they travel to California to get the abortion.

Section IV - Conclusion

Location tracking is a double edged sword for women. On one hand, it can help women feel safe by allowing their friends and family to see their location in case of an emergency or they are put in a dangerous situation. On the other hand, location tracking can also compromise women’s safety, as demonstrated in the above examples. As long as people continue to use devices with location tracking, which is increasingly becoming more pervasive, these issues will also continue to grow. Opting out of using such technology may be the most effective solution, but it is likely the least realistic. While in some cases, women seeking abortions can leave their phone at home in order to avoid being tracked to an abortion clinic, this is not a feasible solution for people who travel out of state. Women could choose to buy older cars that do not have location tracking technology, but this is not a sustainable solution because eventually older cars will be phased out by newer cars containing this technology. Additionally, although companies have indicated concern about these issues, they cannot be relied upon to change their policies and actually implement them. It is in technology companies’ favor to continue to sell location data to make a higher profit no matter the consequences, and car companies will continue to sell cars even if some customers’ safety are jeopardized. Therefore, comprehensive laws need to be passed in order to ensure that domestic violence victims and people seeking abortions are adequately protected.

Section V - Sources

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/31/technology/car-trackers-gps-abuse.html https://sites.suffolk.edu/jhtl/2024/03/08/your-car-could-let-your-abuser-track-you/ https://calmatters.org/economy/technology/2024/04/car-tracking-domestic-violence/#:~:text=Abusive%20partners%20increasingly%20use%20technology,has%20been%20in%20the%20past. https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/28/24085723/fcc-domestic-abuse-survivors-connected-cars-proposed-rule https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/yes-phones-can-reveal-if-someone-gets-an-abortion/ https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/location-data-tracks-abortion-clinic-visits-heres-what-know

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