Trahan Statement on Data Broker Responses

Statement

Today, Congresswoman Lori Trahan (MA-03), a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Consumer Protection and Commerce Subcommittee, issued the following statement after receiving responses from MobileWalla, Near, Oracle, and AWS to a request she led about women's data being used against them following the overturning of Roe v. Wade:

"I appreciate the timely responses we've received from MobileWalla, Near, Oracle, and AWS regarding our concerns that geolocation data can be used to surveil individuals seeking reproductive care. Each company discussed practices aimed at keeping the data they sell or facilitate the sale of anonymized. They also described acceptable use policies they argue guard against the misuse of that data."

"However, similar practices and policies at a number of brokers have already proven insufficient, even before the overturning of Roe raised the stakes for tens of millions of women. Users have had their supposedly anonymized data bought and de-anonymized with relative ease. Report after report have detailed the misuse of data purchased from brokers, sometimes in blatant violation of company policies. Clearly the reliance of companies on standards that are written in legalese, embedded deep in insanely long terms of service, and give little to no insight into enforcement is failing to meet the moment."

"What's more obvious than ever is that a comprehensive privacy law is urgently needed. In the meantime, holding these companies accountable to the claims they've made is of paramount importance to the millions of women whose data they profit from."

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