With a recently-leaked Supreme Court majority decision draft signaling the long-suspected overturning of landmark reproductive rights case Roe v. Wade, abortion would likely be outlawed in a majority of states. By issuing warrants for search histories, combing through social media posts, and tapping location data to track movement, law enforcement will be able to exploit an ever-growing suite of unregulated digital forensic tools to find and prosecute people en masse.
If recent history is any indication, those most targeted will disproportionately be low-income people and people of color. Many of these intrusive new digital surveillance technologies are already being used to target immigrant communities and as a form of “digital stop and frisk” in predominantly Black neighborhoods, paving the way for rapid adaptation to larger populations. What role can tech companies, advocates, and legislators play in protecting reproductive rights through better privacy protections, and how can individuals shield themselves going forward?
We are joined by:
- Senator Ron Wyden, U.S. Senate
- Wafa Ben-Hassine, Principal, Responsible Technology, Omidyar Network
- Cynthia Conti-Cook, Technology Fellow, Gender, Racial, and Ethnic Justice, Ford Foundation
- Tiffany Li, Fellow, Information Society Project, Yale Law School
- Moderated by Vivian Schiller, Executive Director, Aspen Digital
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Aspen Digital empowers policy-makers, civic organizations, companies, and the public to be responsible stewards of technology and media in the service of an informed, just, and equitable world. A program of the Aspen Institute, we shine a light on urgent global issues across cybersecurity, the information ecosystem, emerging technology, the industry talent pipeline, tech and communications policy, and innovation. We then turn ideas to action and develop human solutions to these digital challenges.
