Amazon.com Inc., Oracle Corp. and different knowledge suppliers pressed by a gaggle of U.S. lawmakers about how they promote cell phone location knowledge provided assurances that the knowledge couldn’t be used to trace people in search of abortion companies.
But U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan, one of many House members questioning the businesses, mentioned she wasn’t glad with the solutions.
While all the businesses detailed methods they maintain knowledge anonymized, “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,” Trahan mentioned in a press release.
Trahan was amongst six Democratic House members and privateness teams together with Access Now, Fight for the Future and Amnesty International that requested info in July on knowledge safety insurance policies from Amazon, Oracle, MobileWalla and Near Intelligence Holdings Inc.
The questions adopted the Supreme Court’s resolution overturning a federal proper to abortion, which has sparked issues that location knowledge may very well be utilized by legislation enforcement in states which have outlawed or restricted abortion and vowed to prosecute individuals who search reproductive care.
Oracle’s knowledge platform doesn’t “permit customers to create datasets that are considered sensitive,” equivalent to these regarding being pregnant or abortions or “function as a standalone marketplace for raw feeds of individuals’ location data,” Oracle Executive Vice President Ken Glueck wrote in a letter to members of Congress.
Amazon mentioned that any knowledge offered on its platform is anonymized, and that it’ll adhere to relevant state and native legal guidelines. A spokesperson for Trahan’s workplace mentioned complying with native legal guidelines on this context may imply handing over digital proof of an abortion below a courtroom order.
Amazon and Oracle promote knowledge merchandise from third-party firms on their cloud marketplaces, together with bulk location info harvested from cellphones. Lawmakers have lengthy sounded the alarm on the sensitivity of those knowledge streams and requires regulation have accelerated within the wake of the courtroom’s resolution.
Privacy regulation has turn out to be a spotlight in Washington — a bipartisan legislative package deal gained traction in latest months — however lawmakers stay divided on enforcement and different key points. The Federal Trade Commission below Chair Lina Khan introduced late final week that it’s exploring new guidelines to guard the non-public knowledge that companies accumulate about shoppers.
MobileWalla, a privately owned agency that collects and sells knowledge from cellphones, advised the lawmakers it doesn’t promote info to legislation enforcement entities or let clients present or use knowledge for legislation enforcement functions.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”