A woman's Facebook messages were used in an abortion case. Here's why that's not surprising

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

63% : According to experts, concerns about data being used in abortion cases are warranted -- messaging apps and geolocation data can be valuable evidence to law enforcement, along with other forms of data like browsing and purchasing history.
57% : Law enforcement can also purchase location data, Vox reports, and they can perform geofence warrants or search term warrants that capture the behaviors of many people at once.
56% : And in 2013, an Indiana woman was charged with feticide after law enforcement found she had texted a friend about abortion pills.
56% : However, for a third-party company like Facebook, law enforcement typically has to obtain a warrant including evidence of a crime and specific information on the scope of the search.
54% : Legally, there are few protections in place for consumers who want to shield this information from law enforcement.
47% : "Law enforcement isn't going to look at the content of messages without justification," says Alexandra Meise, associate teaching professor at the Northeastern University School of Law.
45% : There are hurdles that keep law enforcement from using data in this way.
43% : In a 2020 University of Baltimore Law Review report, Cynthia Conti-Cook, a technology fellow at the Ford Foundation, outlines two examples of ways that data has already been used to prosecute abortion in the United States.
42% :This type of usage of data also isn't new, not even in the context of abortion.
40% : Depending on the app, encryption can make it harder for law enforcement to access data.
40% : This makes it controversial, Meise says, as it can prevent the law enforcement from accessing some data depending on the app.
38% : But now that abortion is being restricted in the United States, "that this case was about abortion highlights the privacy issue in a way that individuals who never anticipated being part of the criminal justice system can relate to," Meise says.
35% : Still, with the overturning of Roe v. Wade changing the legal landscape in the United States, some are worried that this case is emblematic of a stark new reality when it comes to criminalizing abortion.
34% : What they may not realize, though, is that law enforcement uses data like this all the time, and that data had been used to prosecute abortion long before the Dobbs ruling.
32% : "Now, states are criminalizing abortion in a world where every single move that we make is tracked by someone.
31% : "The inclusion of Ms. Fisher's alleged internet search history related to her reproductive health as evidence of criminal intent will become standard protocol across the country once abortion is again criminalized," she writes.

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