Companies offering resources for abortion may also be toeing the line on several privacy issues
“Companies should be practicing data minimization and don’t retain data, as there is no real benefit and a lot of risk for a company to retain that data,” says Debbie Reynolds, a technologist and expert on data-driven projects who focuses on data privacy, data protection, and emerging technology issues. “There are ways that people can protect their privacy in some ways, using encrypted chats like Signal or encrypted email.”
Reynolds adds that some state laws may require the collection of law enforcement data and, therefore, the disclosure of information that may include collecting more data than they are prepared for.
For Rebecca Herold, CEO at The Privacy Professor consultancy and Privacy & Security Brainiacs SaaS services, the best solution privacy-wise would be to “offer travel and lodging as a wellness benefit.” She also thinks that “abortion clinics have established pretty strong protection on their data and who can access it.”
Ann LaFrance, former head of privacy at the law firm Squire Patton Boggs and teacher at UC Hastings, explained that most employers avoid collecting health care data by ensuring that their providers manage this. But that the protections of “the HIPAA— Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act—legislation are not very broad, it protects only limited sets of personal health data. The problem is that where alleged violations of criminal statutes are involved, there are exemptions in HIPAA and other relevant privacy legislation where law enforcement agencies obtain warrants to access the data that’s held by these organizations.” Therefore, LaFrance says that there could be an issue with sites that you have been visiting, and apps that you are using. Because “ultimately, law enforcement can get access to any data that these service providers retain if there is probable cause of a violation and the criminal statute is constitutional under federal and state law.”
All three experts agree that there are still a lot of questions about how everything is going to work out. One of the main questions is whether or not travel bans will be constitutional. LaFrance also adds “there is a complex set of decisions that companies are going to have to make, and it will be very difficult for them to do so because the law will not be settled in this area for a long while.”
Finally, a spokesperson from Patagonia told Stacker that “employees are allowed to use their sick time at their discretion. There is no requirement or expectation that an employee discloses why they are taking sick or medical leave. All travel expenses and reimbursements are routed through our health plans, which ensures the highest-level confidentiality.”
