WHAT MATTERS: Google has said it will soon begin to delete data for visits to abortion clinics and health care locations. Is that a step in the right direction? Is that something to be celebrated, or is it nothing at all?

CAHN: This is far too little, far too late. Google has been warned that the way they are storing data poses a threat to civil rights for years.

And while we are all talking about the threat to abortion care right now, this also poses a threat to political protest, it poses a threat to freedom of religion, freedom of assembly -- almost any right that we use.

In fact, almost any right that we exercise by coming together in a single place can be forever chilled by these sorts of warrants. And it's not hypothetical. We saw Minneapolis police using a geofence warrant during Black Lives Matter protests in 2020.

Even by its own terms, Google's approach isn't enough. First off, for people who are providing abortion medication and services in states where it's illegal, they're not about to publicize to Google that they qualify as a health care facility. So Google wouldn't even know to redact the information from that location.

And then second of all, even if they are redacting information from the clinic itself, you can still gain a lot of information by tracking someone's movements in other areas, particularly if people are traveling out of state long distances.

So rather than saying that we should only have our privacy in select locations, Google should say that every place should be a safe place.

WHAT MATTERS: Google has said it will soon begin to delete data for visits to abortion clinics and health care locations. Is that a step in the right direction? Is that something to be celebrated, or is it nothing at all?

CAHN: This is far too little, far too late. Google has been warned that the way they are storing data poses a threat to civil rights for years.

And while we are all talking about the threat to abortion care right now, this also poses a threat to political protest, it poses a threat to freedom of religion, freedom of assembly -- almost any right that we use.

In fact, almost any right that we exercise by coming together in a single place can be forever chilled by these sorts of warrants. And it's not hypothetical. We saw Minneapolis police using a geofence warrant during Black Lives Matter protests in 2020.

Even by its own terms, Google's approach isn't enough. First off, for people who are providing abortion medication and services in states where it's illegal, they're not about to publicize to Google that they qualify as a health care facility. So Google wouldn't even know to redact the information from that location.

And then second of all, even if they are redacting information from the clinic itself, you can still gain a lot of information by tracking someone's movements in other areas, particularly if people are traveling out of state long distances.

So rather than saying that we should only have our privacy in select locations, Google should say that every place should be a safe place.