Facebook hands over chats to cops in post-Roe abortion case
(2022/08/10)
- Reference: 1660161576
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/08/10/meta_abortion_charges/
- Source link:
Private Facebook chats between a Nebraska mother and her daughter has been used by law enforcement to build a criminal case against the teen for getting a now-illegal abortion in her home state.
This appears to be the first case in [1]post-Roe America of cops obtaining a search warrant and essentially forcing a tech company to help them prosecute an abortion case.
Jessica Burgess, 41, [2]pleaded not guilty to five criminal charges including felonies for administering abortion pills to her then-17-year-old daughter, and then helping bury the fetus, according to the Lincoln Journal Star. The daughter, who is being tried as an adult, also pleaded not guilty to three charges, including a felony.
[3]
A Norfolk Police detective, Ben McBride, began investigating the two women in late April, months before US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. However, under an earlier [4]Nebraska law , abortion is illegal 20 weeks after an egg is fertilized.
[5]
[6]
According to McBride's affidavit
After obtaining medical records and interviewing both women, McBride obtained a search warrant
Don't build it, don't keep it, and the cops won't come for it
Meta confirmed that it received the warrant on June 7.
"The warrants did not mention abortion at all," the social media giant said in a [9]statement .
[10]
"Court documents indicate that police were at that time investigating the alleged illegal burning and burial of a stillborn infant," it continued. "The warrants were accompanied by non-disclosure orders, which prevented us from sharing information about them. The orders have now been lifted."
Using this type of data to prosecute women seeking abortions is exactly the scenario that digital privacy advocates have been sounding the alarm over since it became increasingly clear that the Court intended to overturn constitutional abortion protections.
[11]Data brokers amass profiles of pregnant women – and, of course, it's all up for sale
[12]FTC suddenly gets very stern about not-really-anonymized anonymized data
[13]National data privacy law for the US clears first hurdle
[14]Big Tech silent on data privacy in post-Roe America
In May, EFF [15]warned that "service providers can expect a raft of subpoenas and warrants seeking user data that could be employed to prosecute abortion seekers, providers, and helpers."
Given that such companies [16]generally comply with police and government agents' lawful requests for people's personal information in the course of criminal investigations, big tech may ultimately find itself stuck between just handing over that data or significantly overhauling the way they collect and process it.
"Companies generally have to respond to a valid warrant, although they can take care to ensure that it really is valid, and fight it if not," the EFF Legal Director Corynne McSherry told The Register .
[17]
"But the best way to protect your users is to minimize the data you collect, delete what you do collect whenever possible, and encrypt private messages end-to-end as a default," McSherry added.
"Don't build it, don't keep it, and the cops won't come for it. And if your business model depends on more aggressive surveillance, maybe you need a new business model." ®
Get our [18]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/24/big_tech_post_roe_wade/
[2] https://journalstar.com/news/state-and-regional/nebraska/norfolk-mother-and-daughter-accused-of-illegal-abortion-burning-and-burying-body/article_ff99fd49-a710-5ec3-8d51-5aced3001c71.html
[3] 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=2YvQqgyFVzkctuCeyAhevGgAAAMM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=28-3,106
[5] 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=44YvQqgyFVzkctuCeyAhevGgAAAMM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
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[7] https://regmedia.co.uk/2022/08/10/mcbride_affidavit.pdf
[8] https://regmedia.co.uk/2022/08/10/meta_warrant.pdf
[9] https://about.fb.com/news/2022/08/meta-response-nebraska-abortion-case/
[10] 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=44YvQqgyFVzkctuCeyAhevGgAAAMM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/01/pregnant_womens_data_sold/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/12/ftc_anonymized_data/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/21/us_adppa_privacy/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/24/big_tech_post_roe_wade/
[15] https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/05/what-companies-can-do-now-protect-digital-rights-post-roe-world
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/16/microsoft_digital_transparency/
[17] 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=33YvQqgyFVzkctuCeyAhevGgAAAMM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[18] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
This appears to be the first case in [1]post-Roe America of cops obtaining a search warrant and essentially forcing a tech company to help them prosecute an abortion case.
Jessica Burgess, 41, [2]pleaded not guilty to five criminal charges including felonies for administering abortion pills to her then-17-year-old daughter, and then helping bury the fetus, according to the Lincoln Journal Star. The daughter, who is being tried as an adult, also pleaded not guilty to three charges, including a felony.
[3]
A Norfolk Police detective, Ben McBride, began investigating the two women in late April, months before US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. However, under an earlier [4]Nebraska law , abortion is illegal 20 weeks after an egg is fertilized.
[5]
[6]
According to McBride's affidavit
[7]PDF
, Burgess claimed to have given birth to a stillborn child when she was around 23 weeks pregnant, after reportedly taking abortion pills.After obtaining medical records and interviewing both women, McBride obtained a search warrant
[8]PDF
that required Facebook's parent company Meta to hand over a bunch of digital data including user accounts, posts, friend lists, and messages, as law enforcement built its case against the two.Don't build it, don't keep it, and the cops won't come for it
Meta confirmed that it received the warrant on June 7.
"The warrants did not mention abortion at all," the social media giant said in a [9]statement .
[10]
"Court documents indicate that police were at that time investigating the alleged illegal burning and burial of a stillborn infant," it continued. "The warrants were accompanied by non-disclosure orders, which prevented us from sharing information about them. The orders have now been lifted."
Using this type of data to prosecute women seeking abortions is exactly the scenario that digital privacy advocates have been sounding the alarm over since it became increasingly clear that the Court intended to overturn constitutional abortion protections.
[11]Data brokers amass profiles of pregnant women – and, of course, it's all up for sale
[12]FTC suddenly gets very stern about not-really-anonymized anonymized data
[13]National data privacy law for the US clears first hurdle
[14]Big Tech silent on data privacy in post-Roe America
In May, EFF [15]warned that "service providers can expect a raft of subpoenas and warrants seeking user data that could be employed to prosecute abortion seekers, providers, and helpers."
Given that such companies [16]generally comply with police and government agents' lawful requests for people's personal information in the course of criminal investigations, big tech may ultimately find itself stuck between just handing over that data or significantly overhauling the way they collect and process it.
"Companies generally have to respond to a valid warrant, although they can take care to ensure that it really is valid, and fight it if not," the EFF Legal Director Corynne McSherry told The Register .
[17]
"But the best way to protect your users is to minimize the data you collect, delete what you do collect whenever possible, and encrypt private messages end-to-end as a default," McSherry added.
"Don't build it, don't keep it, and the cops won't come for it. And if your business model depends on more aggressive surveillance, maybe you need a new business model." ®
Get our [18]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/24/big_tech_post_roe_wade/
[2] https://journalstar.com/news/state-and-regional/nebraska/norfolk-mother-and-daughter-accused-of-illegal-abortion-burning-and-burying-body/article_ff99fd49-a710-5ec3-8d51-5aced3001c71.html
[3] 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=2YvQqgyFVzkctuCeyAhevGgAAAMM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=28-3,106
[5] 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=44YvQqgyFVzkctuCeyAhevGgAAAMM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
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[7] https://regmedia.co.uk/2022/08/10/mcbride_affidavit.pdf
[8] https://regmedia.co.uk/2022/08/10/meta_warrant.pdf
[9] https://about.fb.com/news/2022/08/meta-response-nebraska-abortion-case/
[10] 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=44YvQqgyFVzkctuCeyAhevGgAAAMM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/01/pregnant_womens_data_sold/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/12/ftc_anonymized_data/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/21/us_adppa_privacy/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/24/big_tech_post_roe_wade/
[15] https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/05/what-companies-can-do-now-protect-digital-rights-post-roe-world
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/16/microsoft_digital_transparency/
[17] 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=33YvQqgyFVzkctuCeyAhevGgAAAMM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[18] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: 49 years
DS999
An amendment guaranteeing equal rights for women has been waiting for enough states to approve since about the time of the Roe v Wade decision. If you can't guarantee basic equality for women, what do you think the chances were for getting them to guarantee abortion rights? It takes 3/4 of states, or 38 of them. There was never a chance of this. One of the arguments against the equal rights amendment, by the way, is "they already have equal rights so this is unnecessary". They would have said the same thing about a constitutional amendment to guarantee abortion rights.
They could have passed a law that preempted state laws, though this activist court would probably have declared that unconstitutional at the same time they reversed Roe.
Re: 49 years
Duncan Macdonald
Unfortunately it takes 38 states to ratify an amendment and there are more than 12 states with hidebound Republican leadership that would never ratify such an amendment.
Religious
steviebuk
Fucks & they stupid bullshit ideas.
What arseholes.
Anything you do say may be given in evidence.
Khaptain
Social Media : The shark in wolves clothes.
America
wolfetone
The country where firearms have more rights than women.
I feel really sorry for the family
Foxglove
I really do, this situation should not arise in a civilised society.
49 years
...to pass an ammendment specifically enshrining the right to an abortion, while the 'pro-life' crowd threatened to do what they just did. This would have put it beyond the reach of any supreme court or state legislator. Instead, they rested upon the laurels of a weak legal decision and a temporary fix became a (semi, as it turned out) permanent one.