Google will start auto-deleting visits to abortion clinics from users local search history in the next few weeks. The company will also take the same action for other sensitive destinations like domestic violence shelters, weight loss clinics, and others.
The company says that it will remove the visits’ soon after’ the user checks it out and once its system confirms that they visited the location.
This drastic change is obviously an offshoot of the Supreme Court’s decision on the Roe v. Wade case and the fact that many American states are already putting up laws to make abortions illegal in their region.
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Google tagged its announcement “Protecting people’s privacy on health topics” and says in part:
“Privacy matters to people — especially around topics such as their health. Given that these issues apply to healthcare providers, telecommunications companies, banks, tech platforms, and many more, we know privacy protections cannot be solely up to individual companies or states acting individually. That’s why we’ve long advocated for a comprehensive and nationwide U.S. privacy law that guarantees protections for everyone, and we’re pleased to see recent progress in Congress.
“But we haven’t waited for a law to take action. We understand that people rely on Google to keep their personal data secure. We’ve long been committed to this work, and today we’re sharing additional steps we’re taking to protect user privacy around health issues.”
In addition to this new policy, Google has several privacy tools that can help users control their data, and you can find some of them here.
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