Tech companies ready public stances on Roe v. Wade
- Reference: 1656334809
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/06/27/tech_companies_roe_wade/
- Source link:
A Supreme Court [1]draft opinion that was leaked in February provided advanced warning of the legal eventuality, giving companies plenty of time to prepare official positions and related policies for employees.
Without proper policies in place, tech companies could put themselves at risk of "brain drain" as employees become tempted to relocate to states where abortion access is readily available or to companies that better support potential needs as healthcare in the US is more often tied to an employer than not.
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Thirteen out of 50 states have "trigger laws," meaning the highest court's action bans abortion automatically, and anyone seeking the procedure must travel to another state to receive such desired medical care.
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These trigger states are home to companies such as Dell, Tesla, SolarWinds, HP, Oracle, and Rackspace (all in Texas), as well as Micron in Idaho. Even without a headquarters in a trigger state, companies may still operate with a footprint in one, for example Microsoft's [5]datacenters in Cheyenne, Wyoming , which as of last November had over 200 employees.
Companies including [6]Airbnb , headquartered in Georgia, which although not a trigger state is one of 26 states [7]deemed certain or likely to restrict access to abortion, already had a policy of allowing remote work without negatively affecting pay no matter the location. Airbnb's policy was put in place in April.
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Google mostly allows its employees to change their location, rejecting only applicants whose jobs require specialized equipment or necessary in-person meetings, which it [9]told Bloomverg accounts for approximately 15 percent of staff.
"Chief people officer" Fiona Cicconi sent out a letter to staff on Friday stating that Googlers and their dependents' insurance covered out-of-state medical procedures not available where the employee lived and worked. "Googlers can also apply for relocation without justification, and those overseeing this process will be aware of the situation. If you need additional support," further [10]read the email.
Susan Wojcicki, CEO of fellow Alphabet company, video platform YouTube, said on Twitter that "reproductive rights are human rights."
As a CEO I recognize there are a spectrum of opinions on the SCOTUS ruling today. As a woman, it’s a devastating setback. I personally believe every woman should have a choice about how and when to become a mother. Reproductive rights are human rights. — Susan Wojcicki (@SusanWojcicki) [11]June 24, 2022
[12]Abortion rights: US senators seek ban on sale of health location data
[13]FTC urged to protect data privacy of women visiting abortion clinics
[14]Big Tech loves talking up privacy – while trying to kill privacy legislation
[15]Trouble hiring? Consider loosening your remote work policy
Apple, Meta, and Amazon have also [16]agreed to cover out-of-state travel expenses to receive medical care. Of course, in the case of Amazon, the benefit does not apply to its swathes of contractors and part-time employees.
Sheryl Sandberg, soon to be [17]former COO of Meta Platforms, took to her [18]Facebook page to call the Supreme Court ruling a "huge setback" that "jeopardizes the health and the lives of millions of girls and women across the country."
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Salesforce CEO Mark Benioff also issued a statement via Twitter:
I believe CEOs have a responsibility to take care of their employees—no matter what. Salesforce moves employees when they feel threatened or experience discrimination. To our Ohana—we always make sure you have the best benefits & care, & we will always have your back. Always. ❤️ — Marc Benioff (@Benioff) [20]June 24, 2022
Meanwhile, Microsoft [21]said on LinkedIn: "Microsoft will continue to do everything we can to support our employees and their enrolled dependents in accessing critical health care. This includes our previously announced support for travel expense assistance for medical services covered in our US health plan, when care options, including abortion, are limited in an employee's home region."
But while offering support to employees regarding Roe v Wade's reversal is important culturally and logistically, that support may not necessarily extend to their users.
On Friday morning, as the Supreme Court's decision was announced, The Register [22]asked Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Meta, and Twitter "what will your company do to ensure that the data you collect isn't going to be used to build a case against women seeking abortions and people or organizations providing abortion support?"
As of 1600 Pacific Time that day, none had responded.
According to reports at the weekend, a Meta [23]memo told its workers on Friday not to openly discuss the Supreme Court's ruling.
A May report from news non-profit The Markup [24]concluded that Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft often support privacy in public statements, but claimed that behind the scenes the companies have worked to weaken or kill US privacy legislation. ®
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[1] https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000180-874f-dd36-a38c-c74f98520000
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YrnUIggItCXBjjkKC7slAQAAARc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YrnUIggItCXBjjkKC7slAQAAARc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YrnUIggItCXBjjkKC7slAQAAARc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/microsoft-expands-cloud-services-with-two-new-datacenters-in-wyoming/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/29/airbnb_work_from_anywhere/
[7] https://www.guttmacher.org/article/2021/10/26-states-are-certain-or-likely-ban-abortion-without-roe-heres-which-ones-and-why
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YrnUIggItCXBjjkKC7slAQAAARc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-03/google-approves-most-staff-requests-to-relocate-or-work-remotely#xj4y7vzkg
[10] https://www.theverge.com/2022/6/24/23182288/google-letter-email-employees-roe-v-wade-decision
[11] https://twitter.com/SusanWojcicki/status/1540441791958159360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/17/bill-location-data-ban-roe/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/23/ftc_women_tracking/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/27/big_tech_privacy/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/25/remote_working_hiring/
[16] https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/24/apple-responds-to-roe-v-wade-rollback.html
[17] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sheryl-sandberg-leaving-facebook-meta/
[18] https://www.facebook.com/sheryl/posts/pfbid02yc9iGaEn9EBRW4LDj6AmPAWFuyZWh6zJbwYrPQygCWx88yNZka2n5Nid6iFxLboLl
[19] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YrnUIggItCXBjjkKC7slAQAAARc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[20] https://twitter.com/Benioff/status/1540413271379005442?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[21] https://www.linkedin.com/posts/microsoft_microsoft-will-continue-to-do-everything-activity-6946280944945287168-M_JP?utm_source=linkedin_share&utm_medium=member_desktop_web
[22] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/24/big_tech_post_roe_wade/?td=rt-3a
[23] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/25/business/meta-abortion-employees-discussions.html
[24] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/27/big_tech_privacy/?td=keepreading-top
[25] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
"reproductive rights are human rights"
Very well. Don't do business in those states that are against human rights. Consign them to the dustbin of history.
Re: "reproductive rights are human rights"
Exactly, all of the states that allow abortion and kill children, right into the dustbin.
Re: "reproductive rights are human rights"
I wrote an article on my blog (before this was overturned). It was interesting to compare those states that would either outright or extremely likely to ban abortions.... with those states that had enacted capital punishment in the past ten years.
Either life is important, or it isn't. To "think of the tadpole-like-prehumans" while killing criminals with some incredibly vile methods (such as electric chair) makes them all a bunch of fucking hypocrites and also makes it clear to me that this is about fear of femininity and controlling women than anything to do with saving any life.
So, a big +1 for consigning the states that are going along with this nonsense to the universe's built in /dev/null device.
Google hypocrisy
So control over your body is a human right. Unless you want to work for Google.
https://www.theregister.com/2021/12/15/google_vaccinations/
Re: Google hypocrisy
You were not paying attention in SexEd if you think you can catch pregnancy.
we will always have your back
Re - Salesforce will move employees
How about this instead. Salesforce could create a policy banning the use of its own product in the USA until somebody reverses this terrible prehistoric decision.
But they won't do that, because that would severely hurt their income.
Instead they make gestures such as - we'll move you elsewhere if this is a problem for you - almost like this is some kind of great solution. Relocating people (away from their families, friends.... lives) isn't without downsides!
I can't really take these "we will always have your back" posts seriously because if they genuinely did have their employees back, they'd be doing something a lot bigger than that. But not if it would hurt them financially, it seems.
Russia waged war on Ukraine and companies have pulled products/services from there. So why is it when Uncle Sam wages a war on women nobody does anything equivalent in the US?
Re: we will always have your back
Wait for the world's reaction the next time somebody leftpondian talks about how terrible the {somewhere that probably speaks Arabic} treat women, girl's access to education, or whatever.
With this single act, for much the same reasoning behind it (a twisted and narrow interpretation of cherry-picked and likely willfully misinterpreted religious tracts) they have demonstrated that they aren't so different. And have completely lost legitimacy in trying to tell the rest of the world how to behave towards women.
I'd give the SCOTUS a slow handclap, but it's all too bloody depressing. Welcome to The Dark Ages 2.0.
What when helping a women get an abortion is criminalised ?
This is what will happen in some states. Helping pay for a flight or even driving someone to an airport to go get an abortion will open you to criminal proceedings. Will these nice sounding policies survive an onslaught like that ? I hope so, but ...
Privacy??
"A May report from news non-profit The Markup concluded that Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft often support privacy in public statements, but claimed that behind the scenes the companies have worked to weaken or kill US privacy legislation. "
While Big Tech companies may be supportive of abortion rights for their employees, they might be happier to support that to be enacted by law rather than have Roe v Wade still stand, given that Roe v Wade essentially expands the borders of what 'privacy' is normally considered to include.
It's completely unlikely that any of them will limit their data collection golden geese to protect their users' privacy, whatever weasel words they will come up with in public to pretend otherwise. And they all typically already comply with legal/judicial data requests, so if a Texas court subpoenas a dataset from them, I don't see them refusing if the warrant is legit and the data is available.
Incidentally, I don't know how the warrant details work, but if a judge issues a warrant for the location data of Mrs Jane Doe over a specific time period, would Google etc even know if it was in relation to an investigation on abortion vs say grand theft auto?