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In the future, Google wants to delete the location data of users who have visited abortion clinics, women's shelters and other intimate places in the USA.
"If our systems determine that someone has visited one of these places, we will delete these entries from the location history shortly after the visit," announced Google manager Jen Fitzpatrick on Friday.
The change will come into effect in the coming weeks.
Other places where Google no longer wants to store location data from smartphones in the future are fertility clinics, addiction clinics and weight loss clinics.
With the announcement, the technology group is reacting to the abortion ruling of the US Supreme Court.
Just over a week ago, the Supreme Court issued the landmark decision “Roe v.
Wade” of 1973, which had enshrined a national right to abortion.
This means that the states can now largely or even completely ban abortions.
Some conservative-governed states have already done so.
After the verdict, activists and politicians called on Google and other technology companies to stop storing location history and other sensitive data so that the authorities could not use them to investigate abortions.
Whether the new regulation on Google will also apply to search queries, such as Googling for advice centers or medication, is not discussed in the blog.
Fitzpatrick only writes: Google has long rejected “overly broad claims by the law enforcement authorities”.
"We consider the privacy and security expectations of the people who use our products, and we notify people when we comply with regulatory requirements."
»Tools of right-wing extremists«
Even before the Supreme Court ruling, there had been fears in the United States that authorities could use smartphone location data in investigations into abortions.
Several states have also passed legislation in recent months encouraging individuals to sue doctors and others who have helped women obtain abortions.
In May, Democrat parliamentarians wrote a letter to Google boss Sundar Pichai, asking him to stop collecting location data so that the data would not be used as a “tool by right-wing extremists”.
sak/AFP