After the fall of Roe vs Wade, learn how to protect your online health data
Experts are warning women to safeguard sensitive information
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Following the decision of the US Supreme Court to overturn the right to abortion protected by Roe vs Wade, many concerns have been raised over online health data security.
Various groups of experts have been urging tech companies to revise their policies to better protect women’s privacy. On May 24, lawmakers expressed their concerns in alettertoGoogle, urging the tech giant “to stop unnecessarily collecting and retaining customer location data”.
At the same time, privacy advocates are warning users to safeguard their online anonymity with security tools - such as aVPN- together with strong digital hygiene practices.
“Search data matters. Location data matters. Health data matters,“tweetedEva Galperin, Director of Cybersecurity at Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).
So, how can you keep your online health data protected in a post-Roe America?
The role of tech companies
Every activity that you carry out online leaves some kind of digital trace, from tapping in a query to yourbrowser, to downloading and using an app on your smartphone, and posting holiday pictures on your social media feed.
Tech companies collect a large amount of user data, at all times. These can have a functionality purpose - essential information needed to provide their services - or be sold to third-parties for commercial reasons.
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What’s more, according to the2018 US Cloud Act, authorities can request US-based companies likeAppleand Google to access this sensitive information for legal purposes.
This is whyEFF listed a set of directivesthat tech companies should enact to safeguard their users’data privacy. These includeallowing pseudonymous access,cut down behavioral trackingandenabling end-to-endencryptionby default. They also urge companies toimplement transparency practiceswhile notifying individual users in case they disclose their sensitive information to third-parties.
How to protect your health data security
Whether or not tech giants will enact a more ethical approach to data collection is yet to be seen. In the meantime, you can protect yourself by minimizing your sensitive health data going online.
- Use ananonymous search engine
As we mentioned before, the queries that you conduct on your browser or search engine can be easily tracked down. This is why you should use a software that minimizes the collection and retention of data by default. One of the best around isDuckDuckGo, for example. Even some VPN providers offer alternatives nowadays.Surfshark, for instance, now includes a private search engine with itsSurfshark Onebundle.
- Protect your sensitive communications
To minimize the risks that sensitive communications might be used against you, you should always use encrypted messaging apps likeSignalandsecure email serviceslikeProtonMail. EFF’s experts even suggestusing a secondary phone numberfor boosting anonymity during phone calls. You can easily create one withGoogle Voice.
- Ditch your hungry-data period app
Even though it looks like a hassle tracking down your period on paper calendars and notebooks, using aperiod-tracking appmeans that a lot of details about you and your menstrual cycle will be exposed. If you want to use one anyway, avoid those collecting an extensive array of sensitive data. Below, the list of the most data-hungry period-tracking apps on the Apple Store according toresearch from Surfshark.
- Minimize your phone location tracking
Your smartphone can say a lot about you, from the apps you download to the places you visit. In particular, geo-localization might be used as a way to determine whether or not you visit an abortion clinic. To reduce the risk you should make sure to disable the location tracking feature from your phone’s settings and apps. You can even consider turning off your device completely when you’re going to a location with increased surveillance.
- Add privacy-focused browser extension
As mentioned before, tech companies collect data in several ways and for different purposes. For this reason, you should opt for adding privacy-focused extensions to your browser. These can vary from an ad-blocker to apassword managertool.NordVPN, for example, is offering itsThreat Protectionfor free alongside its VPN subscription. While, our favorite serviceExpressVPNcomes with its ownExpressVPN Keysat no adding costs.
- Use a secure VPN
vShort for virtual private network, thebest VPNsallow you to safely browse anonymously as they mask your realIP address. Beside bypassing geo-restrictions, it makes it impossible to define your real location. What’s more, it encrypts all of your data in transit inside itsVPN tunnelso that neither hackers nor authorities can get hold of your information.
Make sure to choose one of themost private VPNservices to have the guarantee of a strict no logs-policy. This means that none of your sensitive data can be stored, shared or leaked.
Are free VPNs enough to keep you secure?
As a rule of thumb, you should avoid mostfree VPNservices as they usually make a profit by invasive advertising practices or selling your browsing data to third-parties - exactly what you are trying to avoid if you are worried about your health data security.
The good news is that all the most premium providers all come with a risk-free money-back guarantee starting period, while others even offer afree trialfor their mobile version.
Chiara is a multimedia journalist committed to covering stories to help promote the rights and denounce the abuses of the digital side of life—wherever cybersecurity, markets and politics tangle up.She mainly writes news, interviews and analysis on data privacy, online censorship, digital rights, cybercrime, and security software, with a special focus on VPNs, for TechRadar Pro, TechRadar and Tom’s Guide. Got a story, tip-off or something tech-interesting to say? Reach out to chiara.castro@futurenet.com
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