Latest / Stuff Mom Never Told You / Google and Abortion Data with Bridget Todd
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and what kind of
- 0:07Speaker 1: stuff I never told you protection of by Heart Radio
- 0:18Speaker 1: and we're thrilled to once again be joined by bridget Todd,
- 0:22Speaker 1: the wonderful, the marvelous, the magnificent, and the very busy.
- 0:28Speaker 2: We have missed you, Bridget Yes.
- 0:30Speaker 3: I have missed you all too, my favorite authors. It's
- 0:36Speaker 3: nice to be in the company of some literary ladies.
- 0:43Speaker 4: That's sounded like a foreign language, like who are you
- 0:45Speaker 4: talking about?
- 0:50Speaker 2: You just bring on guests. I'm here, yes, yes, are you?
- 0:59Speaker 2: Do you enjoy write it?
- 1:01Speaker 5: I used to enjoy it.
- 1:03Speaker 3: I was the kind of person who would labor over
- 1:07Speaker 3: every sentence, every word choice, and so writing a paragraph
- 1:10Speaker 3: would take me forever. It's one of the reasons why
- 1:13Speaker 3: I'm a podcaster, because I feel it's so much easier
- 1:16Speaker 3: to say it verbally. Once I started podcasting, I was
- 1:19Speaker 3: like writing, who I don't know her? Say it verbally.
- 1:23Speaker 3: But I used to enjoy it, Like I used to
- 1:26Speaker 3: like send pitches to freelance editors and stuff, and but yeah,
- 1:32Speaker 3: much less lately.
- 1:33Speaker 5: How about you?
- 1:33Speaker 3: What is your relationship to writing? The both of you
- 1:36Speaker 3: now that you're going to be published authors.
- 1:41Speaker 1: I love it. I we've we've talked about on the show.
- 1:46Speaker 1: Samantha and I have both done Nana Raimo, which I
- 1:48Speaker 1: know makes a lot of like editors roll their eyes,
- 1:51Speaker 1: but done that, and I have recently, during the pandemic
- 1:56Speaker 1: written a ton of fan fiction, like a actual shocking
- 2:01Speaker 1: amount perhaps which I've started publishing two I'll say rave reviews.
- 2:08Speaker 4: It's true she has a man art. I do.
- 2:11Speaker 5: People made art.
- 2:12Speaker 2: I got it.
- 2:13Speaker 5: People like it, Yes.
- 2:15Speaker 2: People like it, So I do love it. It is
- 2:16Speaker 2: something I enjoy.
- 2:17Speaker 1: But I guess one of the things about Nano Raimo
- 2:20Speaker 1: and fan fiction to a lesser extent is I was
- 2:24Speaker 1: kind of like you bridget with the editing and I
- 2:26Speaker 1: would get some in my head and like, this isn't perfect,
- 2:28Speaker 1: this isn't perfect. But Nano Raimo is like, I don't care,
- 2:31Speaker 1: get it done, but it has to happen. And then
- 2:33Speaker 1: you go back and maybe you get stuck in the
- 2:35Speaker 1: editing again. But it was a real nice for me
- 2:40Speaker 1: thing to do of getting out of my head and
- 2:42Speaker 1: just writing it.
- 2:44Speaker 2: And now we're reading some of that stuff on Spinty.
- 2:47Speaker 1: And then with fan fiction, it's nice because it's like
- 2:51Speaker 1: literally people like use this as an argument against it,
- 2:55Speaker 1: and I'm like, no, this is an argument for it.
- 2:56Speaker 1: Like it's a hobby and it's fun, Like I'm not
- 2:59Speaker 1: worried about like people will enjoy it.
- 3:01Speaker 2: I like it.
- 3:02Speaker 1: It's not gonna go anywhere, and that's fine, But I
- 3:04Speaker 1: just like doing it and I like writing, and it's
- 3:07Speaker 1: definitely kind of therapeutic for me.
- 3:11Speaker 4: Right, I don't do a lot of writing anymore. My
- 3:15Speaker 4: form of writing has always been fiction. But I'm also
- 3:17Speaker 4: one of those who it's the mood. The way my
- 3:21Speaker 4: mood fluctuates is how it goes. And the more depressive
- 3:24Speaker 4: I am, the more likely I'm going to write, And
- 3:26Speaker 4: the more depressive and likely I'm going to write, it's
- 3:28Speaker 4: gonna be sad. So I try to stay away from
- 3:31Speaker 4: that because I'm more fictional than anything else. I think,
- 3:35Speaker 4: for the most part, doing this type of work was
- 3:37Speaker 4: a whole different beast. Doing things like when we write
- 3:40Speaker 4: scripts and outlines and researching has been such a whole
- 3:43Speaker 4: different beast that it's kind of the only way I
- 3:46Speaker 4: do it now. Just come to just space out. I'm like, yeah,
- 3:48Speaker 4: I'm done. I'm not touching a pencil, pen or the
- 3:53Speaker 4: typewriter or a keyboard typewriter. I'm that old. That's how
- 3:57Speaker 4: long it's been.
- 3:58Speaker 5: All the quill pen.
- 4:02Speaker 4: Look, guys, I love typewriters. I love them so much.
- 4:04Speaker 4: I wish I could have like several, because I like
- 4:08Speaker 4: I would collect them, kind of like Tom Hanks does
- 4:10Speaker 4: if I had the money.
- 4:11Speaker 5: I had one in college. I thought I was so hip.
- 4:14Speaker 5: I didn't. I didn't use it. It was it was just
- 4:16Speaker 5: to like have and make me feel cool.
- 4:21Speaker 3: You know, any any to your point about being able
- 4:24Speaker 3: to have outlets to write where you're not you're not
- 4:27Speaker 3: so in your head about it. Like, that's something that
- 4:29Speaker 3: I think is really important about, like having a craft
- 4:33Speaker 3: that you're honing.
- 4:34Speaker 5: I have a post it ode on my laptop that
- 4:37Speaker 5: I'm looking at right now that says.
- 4:38Speaker 3: Do it because it's like for me, so often the
- 4:42Speaker 3: need to do something perfect or to produce something really
- 4:45Speaker 3: good just keeps me from doing anything. And so I like,
- 4:49Speaker 3: I think that we need to have outlets where the
- 4:52Speaker 3: point is doing it. The point is like actually putting
- 4:55Speaker 3: pen to paper or finger to keyboard and not really
- 4:58Speaker 3: being in your head and.
- 4:59Speaker 5: Worrying about like is it perfect?
- 5:01Speaker 3: And so I think, like, yeah, like times like the
- 5:03Speaker 3: National Novel Writing Month. Having things like that like that
- 5:06Speaker 3: kind of get you in the practice of just like
- 5:08Speaker 3: just focus on writing, execute, just.
- 5:10Speaker 5: Write, don't worry about it. Edit it later. Can be
- 5:14Speaker 5: really really powerful.
- 5:15Speaker 6: Right.
- 5:15Speaker 4: They have a scriptwriting month too for people who do
- 5:18Speaker 4: need to Speaking of which, Annie has also other wars
- 5:22Speaker 4: that are not necessarily published, but they have been out
- 5:24Speaker 4: because she's done with the Twelve Days of Halloween the
- 5:28Speaker 4: all of that, So she's got work out there she has.
- 5:30Speaker 4: I feel like she didn't. She's not known, but she
- 5:32Speaker 4: definitely has credit.
- 5:35Speaker 2: I was just waiting for you to.
- 5:36Speaker 4: Say, I know you need someone else to I got to.
- 5:40Speaker 3: It's so funny how like it's so much easier to
- 5:44Speaker 3: like hype up a friend than it is to hype
- 5:47Speaker 3: up your own work.
- 5:49Speaker 1: Yeah, oh my god. It just feels and I think
- 5:52Speaker 1: this is a lot of like conditioning we have. It
- 5:54Speaker 1: just feels like you're as a woman, like, oh, I'm
- 5:57Speaker 1: drawing too much attention to myself for oh, like what
- 5:59Speaker 1: if it's not that good?
- 6:01Speaker 4: Right, Like it's that good anyway, So you don't want
- 6:04Speaker 4: to talk about.
- 6:04Speaker 3: It, and no one wants to see no one wants
- 6:08Speaker 3: to seem like a bragger, but you should be bragging.
- 6:10Speaker 3: We should all be bragging. My friend Meredith Finder notte
- 6:12Speaker 3: a book called Brag Better that's all about the importance
- 6:14Speaker 3: of women bragging. Brag on yourself everyone and Sam and
- 6:19Speaker 3: listeners and listeners.
- 6:21Speaker 1: Yes, yes, well, speaking of I know you've been up
- 6:24Speaker 1: to a lot of stuff, bridget Do you want to
- 6:25Speaker 1: give us any highlights of what we talked?
- 6:30Speaker 5: What's happened?
- 6:30Speaker 3: Well, we have relaunched season four of my podcast There
- 6:33Speaker 3: Are No Girls on the Internet.
- 6:34Speaker 5: We launched it I think last week.
- 6:37Speaker 3: That's right, So I've been It's been one of those
- 6:39Speaker 3: speaking of like doing it crappy and just like getting
- 6:42Speaker 3: it out.
- 6:42Speaker 5: It was I don't know.
- 6:44Speaker 3: I mean, I've been doing this podcast for years now,
- 6:47Speaker 3: but like got a little bit in my head and
- 6:49Speaker 3: was like paralyzed.
- 6:50Speaker 5: With an inability to just like do the thing.
- 6:53Speaker 3: Had some stuff to work through there, but you know,
- 6:55Speaker 3: it got done and it is people can listen to it.
- 6:58Speaker 3: It's ongoing now you can check it out. So that
- 7:00Speaker 3: was really exciting. We wrapped another podcast with Next Chapter
- 7:05Speaker 3: Podcasts called Beef, all about historical beef's and rivalries, which
- 7:10Speaker 3: is a kind of side interest of mine. Listen to
- 7:13Speaker 3: all eight episodes. It was super fun to make. My
- 7:16Speaker 3: favorite was.
- 7:16Speaker 5: Probably Anne Landers and Dear Abby. Did you know they
- 7:20Speaker 5: were sisters? I didn't know that.
- 7:22Speaker 3: Yeah, they were like sisters who had this intense rivalry
- 7:26Speaker 3: because they were both advice calumnists.
- 7:28Speaker 5: Fascinating stuff. Definitely check it out. Yeah, exciting times.
- 7:34Speaker 4: That's interesting. I wonder what like family events were, because
- 7:37Speaker 4: you know, those were the times that you sit together
- 7:38Speaker 4: and kind of moll over whatever troubles you might have,
- 7:41Speaker 4: boyfriend troubles, and the both of them trying to give
- 7:43Speaker 4: you advice. How annoying would that be?
- 7:45Speaker 5: I know, can you imagine my head?
- 7:50Speaker 4: I'd be like, Okay, one was bad enough, but both
- 7:52Speaker 4: of you have to put in your two says and
- 7:54Speaker 4: sound like your therapist. That's even worse.
- 7:57Speaker 5: God, you know, Christmas Dinners were a love that family.
- 8:01Speaker 2: Geez, was there advice like similar?
- 8:04Speaker 3: No, that was something that they had very distinctive advice styles.
- 8:08Speaker 3: One of them their the her advice was like much
- 8:12Speaker 3: more kind of like traditional. Another's was like their her
- 8:15Speaker 3: advice was much more like progressive. They had they had
- 8:19Speaker 3: different attitudes, like they accepted things like you know, like
- 8:24Speaker 3: gay rights and like having people like gay couples come
- 8:26Speaker 3: in with advice. They accepted those things on very different timelines,
- 8:29Speaker 3: like they had very different styles of advice. Yeah, it's
- 8:33Speaker 3: and it's fascinating. Uh, people should like if.
- 8:36Speaker 5: You were gonna, if you were interested.
- 8:37Speaker 3: That's the episode I feel but that's the one that
- 8:40Speaker 3: I feel like is like I learned the most about advice.
- 8:44Speaker 5: Well, I'll say one more thing.
- 8:45Speaker 3: This is like I'm going on way too long, but
- 8:47Speaker 3: it's I'm fascinated by it. Advice columns were kind of
- 8:51Speaker 3: predated this like Internet era idea of people publishing things
- 8:56Speaker 3: and then the readers being able to write in before
- 8:59Speaker 3: the days of the internet, in print the only place
- 9:02Speaker 3: where people would publish something, and then the readers would
- 9:05Speaker 3: then submit letters being like oh I don't know about that,
- 9:07Speaker 3: or submit letters at all, and you know, getting advice
- 9:10Speaker 3: was advice columns. And so the whole concept of a
- 9:13Speaker 3: readership being in conversation and in dialogue with a print
- 9:17Speaker 3: publisher that is now like part of the Internet really
- 9:21Speaker 3: got it start in advice columns. So fun fact, that's random.
- 9:25Speaker 2: So were you abby?
- 9:27Speaker 4: Your team is an you said, alienators?
- 9:30Speaker 5: I what a good question. I identify the team.
- 9:35Speaker 4: As a beef, there's a team.
- 9:36Speaker 5: Yeah, if there's a beef, there's a team. Exactly.
- 9:38Speaker 3: At times I identify with both. I think that dear
- 9:42Speaker 3: Abby definitely struck me as the pettier of the two,
- 9:46Speaker 3: and so I definitely saw a lot of myself in that.
- 9:49Speaker 3: So I at times I feel I see both.
- 9:52Speaker 5: I see myself in both of them.
- 9:53Speaker 3: Put it that way, Oh that's great, good, Yes, I
- 9:59Speaker 3: definitely I need to check that out.
- 10:01Speaker 1: Yeah, because for some reason, my Google updates all the
- 10:03Speaker 1: time to this day like gives me these kinds of
- 10:07Speaker 1: questions people are apparently still asking to advice columnist and
- 10:10Speaker 1: that when I read them, I'm like, this is wild,
- 10:13Speaker 1: this is a thing that is.
- 10:14Speaker 5: Oh my god, I read advice columns.
- 10:16Speaker 3: It's like it's like my one of my favorite things.
- 10:18Speaker 3: I read advice columns every day. It's funny because I
- 10:20Speaker 3: was just talking to someone about an advice column I
- 10:23Speaker 3: read yesterday.
- 10:23Speaker 5: I think it was in.
- 10:24Speaker 3: Slate where a woman had set her single coworker up
- 10:29Speaker 3: with a friend of hers and they went on a
- 10:31Speaker 3: date at a bar and the coworker was like, well,
- 10:34Speaker 3: we're not we can't go out again. And she was
- 10:36Speaker 3: like why and it was because her friend at the
- 10:38Speaker 3: bar ordered a glass of plain milk.
- 10:42Speaker 5: And he was like, I can't see her again.
- 10:44Speaker 3: And so the letter writer was like, how could I
- 10:46Speaker 3: convince him that he's being ridiculous and like, let her
- 10:49Speaker 3: order whatever she wants.
- 10:49Speaker 5: She's a catch.
- 10:51Speaker 3: The weird petty stuff that people write into advice columns,
- 10:55Speaker 3: it just I'm endlessly fascinated by it.
- 10:57Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 10:58Speaker 4: I feel like the update to that is the whole Creddit,
- 11:02Speaker 4: which I adore obviously.
- 11:05Speaker 5: Oh I love them. I love them. And like there
- 11:07Speaker 5: are podcasts where people people just read them. Yes, I'm addictions.
- 11:11Speaker 4: That's the entire podcast is they just read it and
- 11:13Speaker 4: then they talk about it. I'm like, wow, that's simple.
- 11:16Speaker 4: Can we do that? Yeah?
- 11:19Speaker 5: No, like six page research.
- 11:20Speaker 4: On no, no need twelve pages of things and reading
- 11:25Speaker 4: horrible things, thank you. Yeah.
- 11:28Speaker 1: But it also just underscores like how people are doing
- 11:33Speaker 1: all kinds of things that I'm shocked by all the time.
- 11:36Speaker 3: Yeah, it really, It's so true, And like reading advice
- 11:40Speaker 3: columns and all of the like am I like humans
- 11:44Speaker 3: are fascinating. We are, we have fascinating motivations. We our
- 11:49Speaker 3: behavior is really fascinating. Like the ability for humans and
- 11:53Speaker 3: our behavior and our range of behaviors will.
- 11:55Speaker 5: Never cease to surprise me.
- 11:56Speaker 3: I'll put it that way, both in negative ways and
- 11:57Speaker 3: positive ways.
- 11:59Speaker 6: Yeah, yes, yes, yes, well, I guess kind of like
- 12:17Speaker 6: segueing into technology, and it's changed how things are happening
- 12:23Speaker 6: and how we operate.
- 12:26Speaker 1: The topic you've bought today is so important, and I
- 12:28Speaker 1: know it's a question that a lot of people have,
- 12:30Speaker 1: So what are we talking about today?
- 12:34Speaker 3: So this is an important topic. You know, it's almost
- 12:37Speaker 3: been almost a year since the Supreme Court overturned ro
- 12:40Speaker 3: versus Wade, And after that happened, probably immediately, one of
- 12:43Speaker 3: the biggest issues that came up was this connection between
- 12:46Speaker 3: technology and abortion access. You know, like should I delete
- 12:49Speaker 3: my period tracker app? Like what like can I google abortion?
- 12:52Speaker 3: Am I going to go to jail? And so namely
- 12:54Speaker 3: this idea that all of the data from our smartphones
- 12:57Speaker 3: could and would be used to prosecute abortions. So, you know,
- 13:01Speaker 3: back in the day, in the days before row in
- 13:03Speaker 3: nineteen seventy three, you know, it was a rough landscape
- 13:07Speaker 3: for abortion access. Obviously, we've made some really good progress,
- 13:13Speaker 3: you know, because of the expansion of things like pill
- 13:15Speaker 3: based abortion and you know, the ability to get pills
- 13:18Speaker 3: by mail. But in the days before Row in the seventies,
- 13:22Speaker 3: we'd all didn't carry like GPS devices in our pocket
- 13:24Speaker 3: or have this vast virtual network of mass surveillance that
- 13:28Speaker 3: could help criminalize people who need abortions in the communities
- 13:31Speaker 3: that help them.
- 13:32Speaker 5: And I am.
- 13:33Speaker 3: Sorry to say that Google, but the thing that most
- 13:36Speaker 3: of us use for our email, for our maps, for us,
- 13:40Speaker 3: our cell phones for some of us if you use
- 13:42Speaker 3: an Android or a Google phone, is a huge part.
- 13:45Speaker 5: Of that network. And so today I want to talk
- 13:47Speaker 5: about some.
- 13:48Speaker 3: Of the ways that Google has been collecting data related
- 13:53Speaker 3: to abortions, what Google has publicly said, what they're actually doing,
- 13:56Speaker 3: and some recent movement in news in that arena.
- 14:00Speaker 4: You know, I haven't really been thinking about it because
- 14:01Speaker 4: we've talked about again as you were talking about the
- 14:03Speaker 4: period tracker and then Facebook, because we already know some
- 14:06Speaker 4: of the headlines that it's made in what they've done
- 14:09Speaker 4: and how they have helped the anti abortion movement so
- 14:12Speaker 4: much in the whole whole right winged conversation. But I
- 14:16Speaker 4: really haven't thought about Google, even though I should be, like,
- 14:19Speaker 4: obviously we know Google minds a lot of data, and
- 14:22Speaker 4: there's still conversation about how much information they keep and
- 14:25Speaker 4: they spread. But I haven't really thought of it on
- 14:29Speaker 4: like par with what's going on with abortion. So can
- 14:32Speaker 4: you kind of explain what we're talking about here totally?
- 14:36Speaker 3: So I think what you just said, Sam, I've noticed
- 14:38Speaker 3: the same thing. I think that when it comes to
- 14:41Speaker 3: a lot of online harms, people think of Facebook, people
- 14:45Speaker 3: think of Twitter. Of course, Google is an interesting case.
- 14:48Speaker 3: I do think that anecdotally, Google has been able to
- 14:51Speaker 3: skirt a lot of public scrutiny about the way that
- 14:54Speaker 3: they handle some of this stuff in a way that
- 14:56Speaker 3: other platforms have not been able to skirt that kind
- 14:59Speaker 3: of scrutiny.
- 15:00Speaker 5: I think a lot about this. I think it's because.
- 15:02Speaker 3: Google offers a useful product for the world, right like, like
- 15:08Speaker 3: Google does make platforms and tools that are helpful to us. Facebook,
- 15:14Speaker 3: I feel like, is different and that like all they
- 15:17Speaker 3: really offer is like Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram.
- 15:21Speaker 5: Some of those are, you know, globally, some of.
- 15:22Speaker 3: Those platforms are like really useful, but here in the
- 15:25Speaker 3: United States, I feel like if Facebook disappeared, the tool
- 15:28Speaker 3: that they offer is not really as much of a
- 15:31Speaker 3: global good as Google. And so I think that for
- 15:34Speaker 3: that reason, I think that maybe that's why Google doesn't.
- 15:37Speaker 5: Come to mind when you think about these kind of harms.
- 15:39Speaker 3: But the reality is is that Google is really a
- 15:42Speaker 3: major player when it comes to the way that our
- 15:44Speaker 3: data can be misused, specifically to criminalize abortions. And so
- 15:48Speaker 3: shortly after Roe was overturned by the Supreme Court almost
- 15:51Speaker 3: a year ago, Google said that it would proactively delete
- 15:55Speaker 3: its location data when people visited quote, particularly personal places,
- 15:59Speaker 3: including a abortion clinics, hospitals, and shelters. Their statement said,
- 16:03Speaker 3: today we're announcing that if our systems identify that someone
- 16:06Speaker 3: has visited one of these places, we will delete these
- 16:09Speaker 3: entries from location history soon after they visit. This change
- 16:12Speaker 3: will take effect in the coming weeks. And so it's
- 16:15Speaker 3: really that last part of their statement that is important.
- 16:18Speaker 3: Like what does the word soon mean? Like my definition
- 16:22Speaker 3: of soon and Google's definition of soon might be two
- 16:25Speaker 3: different things. What does this will change will take effect
- 16:28Speaker 3: in the coming weeks? It's been almost a year, Like,
- 16:32Speaker 3: is that technically that is a matter of weeks? So, like,
- 16:35Speaker 3: is that what Google is defining as a couple of
- 16:37Speaker 3: weeks wouldn't be how I define it? And so this
- 16:40Speaker 3: was something that Google publicly agreed to do.
- 16:43Speaker 5: They didn't.
- 16:43Speaker 3: They will tell you that they just like decided to
- 16:47Speaker 3: do this as a public good on their own.
- 16:49Speaker 5: That's not exactly true.
- 16:50Speaker 3: There definitely were like digital rights groups behind the scenes
- 16:53Speaker 3: pressuring them to make this choice. But at any event,
- 16:55Speaker 3: they did, and they enjoyed a lot of positive glowing
- 16:59Speaker 3: press know for doing this. However, it's been almost a
- 17:03Speaker 3: year and Google has not really followed up in any
- 17:06Speaker 3: kind of a meaningful or consistent way in their promise
- 17:09Speaker 3: to delete this location history if they think that someone
- 17:13Speaker 3: is going to an abortion clinic. And that is really
- 17:15Speaker 3: concerning because we do live in a landscape where abortion
- 17:18Speaker 3: is so easily criminalized and your digital footprint can be
- 17:21Speaker 3: used to create evidence that you have tried to illegally
- 17:25Speaker 3: access information about abortion.
- 17:28Speaker 1: Right And the thing is like a lot of times
- 17:31Speaker 1: you're using like maps or GPS to get to any place,
- 17:36Speaker 1: like to get to an abortion clinic. And I will
- 17:38Speaker 1: say about Google, like, there are a lot of things
- 17:43Speaker 1: that you don't realize it's tracking, even if because I'm
- 17:45Speaker 1: somebody who's like I go in and I turn off,
- 17:47Speaker 1: Like you're not listening to my voice, you're not doing this,
- 17:49Speaker 1: you're not doing this, it's still doing it, Like I
- 17:51Speaker 1: can't figure out how, but it is. And once I
- 17:54Speaker 1: found a map of like everywhere i'd been, even though
- 17:58Speaker 1: I don't really use GPS that much, and I think
- 18:00Speaker 1: it's because of like emails I get it's like, oh,
- 18:03Speaker 1: you're going on this trip or oh you're doing this
- 18:05Speaker 1: thing Like I'm trying to figure it out but I can't.
- 18:07Speaker 1: But it was creepy, like you can go and find
- 18:09Speaker 1: a map of everywhere you've been, and it is frightening
- 18:12Speaker 1: when it can be used in this very scary landscape
- 18:18Speaker 1: in a case where against abortion or something in a
- 18:21Speaker 1: case of abortion. So it's not like sometimes when you
- 18:25Speaker 1: talk about stuff like this, it can feel very as
- 18:27Speaker 1: we've said several times on this show when you've been
- 18:29Speaker 1: on like oh that's an Internet thing.
- 18:31Speaker 2: I don't see it, so it's not.
- 18:33Speaker 1: Real, but it very much is, and there is data
- 18:38Speaker 1: around this whole thing right totally.
- 18:41Speaker 5: So this is not an Internet issue.
- 18:43Speaker 3: This is not an abstract issue or a hypothetical, far
- 18:46Speaker 3: away down the line, maybe one day issue. This is
- 18:49Speaker 3: an issue that's happening to people in their real lives
- 18:52Speaker 3: right now. So, just to set the scene, according to
- 18:55Speaker 3: Google's own transparency report, they have already been subpoenaed several
- 18:59Speaker 3: times for users data. In the second half of twenty
- 19:01Speaker 3: twenty one, they received eighteen thousand and thirty seven subpoenas
- 19:05Speaker 3: and twenty three thousand, nine hundred and twenty four search
- 19:07Speaker 3: warrants for user information. So it's pretty reasonable to conclude
- 19:11Speaker 3: that prosecutors and states were abortion is illegal might already
- 19:14Speaker 3: be making requests for personal data from Google to prosecute
- 19:18Speaker 3: those looking for abortions. Also, in terms of like where
- 19:22Speaker 3: we've already seen this happening, we already know that people
- 19:25Speaker 3: have already been charged with a painting abortions or helping
- 19:28Speaker 3: somebody a pain an abortion, with their digital footprint.
- 19:30Speaker 5: Being used as evidence.
- 19:32Speaker 3: You might remember that when Roe was overturned Mark Zuckerberg,
- 19:36Speaker 3: when he was asked about it, he said that he
- 19:38Speaker 3: was hoping that encrypting Facebook's messages would help protect people
- 19:42Speaker 3: from quote overbroad requests for information, but that did not
- 19:47Speaker 3: stop the company from handing over user information. In June,
- 19:50Speaker 3: before Roe was overturned, Facebook turned over the private messages
- 19:54Speaker 3: of a mother and daughter facing criminal charges for allegedly
- 19:57Speaker 3: carrying out an illegal abortion, and so, well.
- 20:00Speaker 5: This is happening now. It is not abstract.
- 20:04Speaker 3: People are currently embroiled and in legal situations that where
- 20:08Speaker 3: they're facing jail time because tech companies were like gave
- 20:14Speaker 3: over sensitive information that they had from folks who were
- 20:17Speaker 3: allegedly looking up information about abortion or talking about abortion.
- 20:21Speaker 3: And so the reason why we have some insight into
- 20:25Speaker 3: this is because of a new report from the digital
- 20:28Speaker 3: rights organization Accountable Tech. They did a couple of different
- 20:32Speaker 3: experiments to get a sense of how Google is tracking
- 20:36Speaker 3: and whether or not they're actually deleting this location information,
- 20:41Speaker 3: and they're just not. So they said that they were
- 20:44Speaker 3: going to and they are not. Like there's not any
- 20:47Speaker 3: other way to interpret kind of what's going on here.
- 20:50Speaker 5: You know.
- 20:51Speaker 4: And as you're talking about it, I just realized I
- 20:54Speaker 4: get monthly information about where where you went this month,
- 20:58Speaker 4: like as if this is like hey, let's monthly review,
- 21:01Speaker 4: look at you. You traveled these places, as if to celebrate.
- 21:03Speaker 4: And now that I'm thinking about it, like wait, what
- 21:07Speaker 4: if I don't want to remember where I went the
- 21:09Speaker 4: last month? What is happening and I don't remember ever
- 21:12Speaker 4: saying yes I want this information, Yes, I want it
- 21:14Speaker 4: to be recorded, and yes, I want to be given
- 21:16Speaker 4: back to me. So if they have that so easily
- 21:18Speaker 4: given without me even prompting or asking for it, I
- 21:21Speaker 4: can't imagine what they actually have. And honestly, I can't
- 21:24Speaker 4: imagine how they decide what to delete if they're doing
- 21:27Speaker 4: specific locations, like how that would even come up, as
- 21:31Speaker 4: well as the fact that, yeah, if they have pinpointed
- 21:33Speaker 4: specific locations that would be easily trackable and easily used
- 21:37Speaker 4: against someone, right.
- 21:39Speaker 3: Totally, And Sam, your point is such a good one,
- 21:42Speaker 3: and I think it's a good like it provides a good,
- 21:47Speaker 3: zoomed out understanding of the issue, right because I get
- 21:51Speaker 3: those two like I've talked about this on my own
- 21:53Speaker 3: show about the Spotify rap, which I always enjoy getting.
- 21:57Speaker 3: But all of these ways that we have been condition
- 22:00Speaker 3: to believe that surveillance is a good thing, Like oh,
- 22:03Speaker 3: I want to get a summary of all the different
- 22:05Speaker 3: places I've traveled in the last month. How and it's
- 22:09Speaker 3: you know, all these pictures of where I was set
- 22:11Speaker 3: to music that might feel exciting to get. And I'm
- 22:15Speaker 3: certainly susceptible to being excited to information about how I've
- 22:18Speaker 3: lived in my life but that is digital surveillance and
- 22:20Speaker 3: the way that we've been conditioned to think it is
- 22:23Speaker 3: not just commonplace to have our devices and our platforms
- 22:28Speaker 3: tracked and surveilled by big tech companies and used for
- 22:31Speaker 3: profit by those companies, but that we should be happy
- 22:34Speaker 3: that it's actually like cool and fun to see this
- 22:38Speaker 3: information about ourselves and get these little, you know, summaries
- 22:41Speaker 3: of what we listened to, where we went, what things
- 22:43Speaker 3: we bought, what we ate all of that, Like, there
- 22:46Speaker 3: really needs to be a fundamental reassessment of the relationship
- 22:51Speaker 3: between users and tech companies when it comes to our data,
- 22:54Speaker 3: because we deserve privacy.
- 22:56Speaker 5: Privacy should be the standard.
- 22:58Speaker 3: But even if you dress it up with a little
- 22:59Speaker 3: mon or a little newsletter or whatever, that is still
- 23:03Speaker 3: surveillance and we should ultimately be questioning whether that, like
- 23:06Speaker 3: that fundamental relationship between user and platform. That's my soapbox
- 23:11Speaker 3: about about surveillance. Like I get upset about it because
- 23:14Speaker 3: it gets me too, Like I, even though I know
- 23:16Speaker 3: all of this stuff and I feel very strongly about it,
- 23:18Speaker 3: when I get a pretty you know breakdown of what
- 23:21Speaker 3: I listened to at the end of the year, I
- 23:23Speaker 3: like it. And so's it's so insidious how we've been
- 23:25Speaker 3: trained to like things that ultimately may not be good
- 23:29Speaker 3: for us.
- 23:30Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I did. I was thinking about this the
- 23:33Speaker 1: other day because when I was in third grade, I
- 23:35Speaker 1: wrote this. We were supposed to tell a story, and
- 23:39Speaker 1: I wrote this story called the Right to be Forgotten.
- 23:41Speaker 1: I was like, what was going on with me? Great title,
- 23:46Speaker 1: I know, but now to say it became a case
- 23:50Speaker 1: against Google where people were like, I don't want to
- 23:53Speaker 1: be remembered in certain ways where you can search me
- 23:56Speaker 1: on the Internet, and it was a case with the EU,
- 24:00Speaker 1: and so I revisited it like a couple of years
- 24:03Speaker 1: ago as an actor, and I did like the Right
- 24:05Speaker 1: to be Forgotten.
- 24:07Speaker 2: And people afterwards were like, what are you talking about?
- 24:10Speaker 1: The kind of that idea of like maybe I just
- 24:13Speaker 1: don't want people to know there are certain parts I
- 24:15Speaker 1: just want to be private.
- 24:16Speaker 2: Oh my god, it is a time traveler, everybody.
- 24:20Speaker 3: It is wild that you're saying this literally. Yesterday I
- 24:23Speaker 3: did an interview with a UCLA Internet researcher named Olivia
- 24:27Speaker 3: Snow and we were talking. We were supplicitly talking about
- 24:31Speaker 3: the right to be forgotten when it comes to platforms.
- 24:34Speaker 3: I cannot believe that this is a concept that you
- 24:36Speaker 3: have been you know, grappling with since you were a child.
- 24:42Speaker 4: She does this a lot. There things that pop up
- 24:45Speaker 4: like she's like, that was my idea. I was like,
- 24:47Speaker 4: what ten years old?
- 24:52Speaker 1: When I was nine, I was doing that was like
- 24:54Speaker 1: the year I wrote out like all the like top
- 24:56Speaker 1: things I wanted to do before I died, Like.
- 24:59Speaker 2: I don't know what was going on going on? It's okay.
- 25:06Speaker 1: Well, going back to that study you mentioned, the accountable
- 25:12Speaker 1: tech thing, they did run a couple of specific experiments, right, Yeah,
- 25:18Speaker 1: it's really interesting.
- 25:19Speaker 3: I'm going to kind of gloss over it, but folks
- 25:21Speaker 3: should definitely check out the study.
- 25:22Speaker 5: You can find that online.
- 25:23Speaker 3: But essentially they did I think three different experiments where
- 25:27Speaker 3: they had a staffer buy an unused, totally new Android
- 25:33Speaker 3: smartphone and then start a new test Google account and
- 25:36Speaker 3: they accepted all the default privacy settings, and they had
- 25:39Speaker 3: to staffer travel from one state to another two different
- 25:44Speaker 3: abortion providers, so in one and they traveled from Columbus,
- 25:47Speaker 3: Ohio to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and wound up that like planned
- 25:51Speaker 3: Parenthood of Pittsburgh and to see, you know, later how
- 25:56Speaker 3: that data would be handled In one test, a staffer
- 25:59Speaker 3: when they logged into the test account that they made
- 26:02Speaker 3: on her browser, so like she took her.
- 26:04Speaker 5: She took the phone to the clinic.
- 26:05Speaker 3: And then when she logged on on the browser I
- 26:09Speaker 3: think thirty days later under the Web and App activity
- 26:12Speaker 3: tab after she completed this test, she found a Google
- 26:16Speaker 3: Map search query from the abortion provider that she visited
- 26:19Speaker 3: stored on her account, So like, they're just not deleting
- 26:21Speaker 3: the data, like it's just like there's no other way
- 26:23Speaker 3: to interpret that information. And they did these tests in
- 26:27Speaker 3: three different ways, and each time there was some information
- 26:30Speaker 3: continued to be stored on these Google accounts, and so
- 26:33Speaker 3: according to Accountable Test, by retaining both location search query
- 26:36Speaker 3: and location history data, Google jeopardizes the health, safety, and
- 26:40Speaker 3: legal status of the users who visit reproductive care facilities
- 26:43Speaker 3: in states where abortion is criminalized.
- 26:45Speaker 5: If prosecutors in a state with.
- 26:46Speaker 3: A restrictive abortion law receive a tip about someone seeking
- 26:49Speaker 3: an abortion, a subpoena would likely force Google to hand
- 26:52Speaker 3: over this sensitive data. And again just to underscore that,
- 26:57Speaker 3: Google said that they were going to delete this data
- 27:01Speaker 3: soon after a person visited. What they said was going
- 27:04Speaker 3: to was one of these sensitive sites, including abortion providers.
- 27:07Speaker 3: And so this test that accountable Tech ran thirty days
- 27:12Speaker 3: is how does how was Google defining soon in this situation?
- 27:15Speaker 5: Right?
- 27:16Speaker 3: Like I would argue that a month is enough time
- 27:18Speaker 3: to have deleted this, but perhaps Google disagrees. And so
- 27:23Speaker 3: it does really feel like this is a situation where
- 27:25Speaker 3: they're I mean, I'm no lawyer, but misleading the public
- 27:29Speaker 3: saying publicly they're doing one thing and then doing another
- 27:33Speaker 3: thing in actuality.
- 27:34Speaker 5: That could get people in serious legal trouble, you know.
- 27:38Speaker 1: Right, And that's that's the thing is like, I know
- 27:42Speaker 1: we're going to talk about this later, but if if
- 27:44Speaker 1: company is telling me a thing, you know, I think
- 27:48Speaker 1: a lot of people use the word like they call
- 27:50Speaker 1: me naive, which I don't think is fair. But like
- 27:51Speaker 1: if I'm like, oh, I trust that because that's what
- 27:54Speaker 1: they said, and then it could be used in a
- 27:58Speaker 1: criminal case despite what they said, like that feels both
- 28:04Speaker 1: wrong illegal, but also it's very scary, Like that is
- 28:08Speaker 1: very frightening scenario.
- 28:11Speaker 3: Exactly, and I think it really underscores how scary and
- 28:15Speaker 3: dire and complicated things can be for someone who is pregnant, right,
- 28:19Speaker 3: Like it's already it can already be a scary, intense time.
- 28:22Speaker 3: But adding on to this vibe of you can't trust
- 28:27Speaker 3: what these companies who say they are going to do
- 28:31Speaker 3: X to keep you safe a little bit more you
- 28:33Speaker 3: can't trust what they're saying. It just adds to this
- 28:36Speaker 3: complex web where it's difficult to know who you can trust.
- 28:40Speaker 5: And so I should note that most today, according to.
- 28:44Speaker 3: The Washington Post, most criminal charges for abortion are stemmed
- 28:47Speaker 3: from a human telling the authorities, not just from your
- 28:51Speaker 3: digital footprint being scraped by Google or something like that.
- 28:54Speaker 3: But we know that your digital footprint can be used
- 28:56Speaker 3: as evidence. And so you know, we live in this
- 28:58Speaker 3: climate where the condictive ex lovers, nosy neighbors, or even
- 29:03Speaker 3: just self appointed vigilantes who may have no connection to
- 29:07Speaker 3: someone who is pregnant at all, all of these people
- 29:09Speaker 3: can be threats. In Texas, a man filed a wrongful
- 29:12Speaker 3: death lawsuit against three women for allegedly helping his then
- 29:16Speaker 3: wife of pain pills that allegedly were used to induce
- 29:19Speaker 3: an abortion last year. If you're someone who is looking
- 29:22Speaker 3: for an abortion in a state where it's been criminalized,
- 29:24Speaker 3: not only do you need to think about who you
- 29:28Speaker 3: can trust, who has access to this information about you
- 29:31Speaker 3: who's in your community again, like even just like your
- 29:34Speaker 3: nosy neighbor next door who doesn't like you for no reason.
- 29:37Speaker 3: But also on top of that, you need to think
- 29:39Speaker 3: about your digital security. You need to think about how
- 29:42Speaker 3: you are accessing information and data online, and you need
- 29:46Speaker 3: to think about whether or not Google is being upfront
- 29:48Speaker 3: about what they're publicly saying about how they use that data.
- 29:52Speaker 3: It is an incredibly high burden that nobody should have
- 29:55Speaker 3: to deal with. It's already hard enough to be in
- 29:58Speaker 3: this situation. On top of it, you should not, as
- 30:01Speaker 3: a regular person, have to be parsing lies from a
- 30:04Speaker 3: platform like Google to make choices for your life and
- 30:07Speaker 3: for your health.
- 30:21Speaker 1: I know that you came on and talked about it,
- 30:25Speaker 1: I think pretty soon after roe versus Wade got overturned.
- 30:28Speaker 2: But kind of the like.
- 30:30Speaker 1: Unfortunate tips that people need to know about, like you know,
- 30:35Speaker 1: different as I was saying, Gmail being used, but like
- 30:39Speaker 1: having a separate Gmail account and using a private browser
- 30:41Speaker 1: and all these things that Like it's like you were saying,
- 30:47Speaker 1: it's a lot to ask of someone to know that
- 30:49Speaker 1: they need to do this.
- 30:53Speaker 3: Yeah, it's the which we shouldn't be asking this of people,
- 30:56Speaker 3: like you shouldn't have to be a digital security expert
- 30:59Speaker 3: just to make choices for your health. You shouldn't have
- 31:02Speaker 3: to know how to parse corporations public pr speak from
- 31:07Speaker 3: what they're actually doing. Like that is a lot for
- 31:09Speaker 3: someone to have to navigate. And so right after Roe
- 31:12Speaker 3: was overturned, we did an episode of There Are No
- 31:14Speaker 3: Girls on the Internet with a computer scientist and digital
- 31:16Speaker 3: security expert, doctor Jen Golbeck. If you know that name,
- 31:19Speaker 3: maybe you've seen her popular TikTok series educating people on
- 31:23Speaker 3: how to be more secure when navigating abortion information online.
- 31:27Speaker 3: I should tell you, like, I am not a lawyer,
- 31:28Speaker 3: I am at a digital security expert, So I want
- 31:31Speaker 3: to be clear about that. But I wanted to, just
- 31:34Speaker 3: if it's possible, play a little clip of what she
- 31:36Speaker 3: told me, because she is the expert. I don't want
- 31:38Speaker 3: to like summarize what she said. So you know, you've
- 31:41Speaker 3: mentioned a couple of like really great tips for folks
- 31:44Speaker 3: if you're if you're you know it, looking for abortion
- 31:47Speaker 3: pills and you want to do it, you know in
- 31:48Speaker 3: a way that you're going to be less likely to
- 31:50Speaker 3: be tracked, you know, using a tour browser, using incognito
- 31:53Speaker 3: mode when you search using.
- 31:55Speaker 5: Public Wi Fi.
- 31:56Speaker 3: Are there other tips that you want to shout out
- 31:58Speaker 3: for folks if you if they if they might need
- 31:59Speaker 3: this information.
- 32:01Speaker 5: So that's all important stuff, I would say for sure.
- 32:03Speaker 7: The most important one is that you are not paying
- 32:07Speaker 7: with a credit card or a debit card connected to
- 32:09Speaker 7: your name, So figure out how much your medication is
- 32:12Speaker 7: going to cost. Use cash by like a Visa Vanilla
- 32:15Speaker 7: gift card, which you can get anywhere for that amount,
- 32:18Speaker 7: and then pay with a Visa Vanilla gift card. So
- 32:22Speaker 7: much of how we're tracked is through credit card number,
- 32:26Speaker 7: so definitely do that. And the other way that we're
- 32:28Speaker 7: really easily tracked is through email address. So set up
- 32:31Speaker 7: a fresh email address that you are only using to
- 32:33Speaker 7: buy this abortion medication. Proton mail is the one site
- 32:37Speaker 7: that I recommended for this. It's free, it's encrypted, it's
- 32:39Speaker 7: really good and secure. You can just set up an
- 32:42Speaker 7: email address, use it to buyer medicine, don't use it
- 32:45Speaker 7: for anything else. If you do that, gift card fresh
- 32:48Speaker 7: email address on something like proton mail. You know, I
- 32:51Speaker 7: love Gmail, I use it right, but they track the
- 32:53Speaker 7: hell out of.
- 32:53Speaker 5: You on Gmail.
- 32:55Speaker 7: So proton mail email address, Vanilla gift card. You get
- 32:59Speaker 7: a eighty percent of the protection from tracking just from
- 33:02Speaker 7: those two measures, So you know that's easy and accessible
- 33:05Speaker 7: to anybody.
- 33:07Speaker 5: Definitely do that.
- 33:09Speaker 3: So yeah, but she doesn't speak to like a map,
- 33:13Speaker 3: location data. And I think that's an interesting point that
- 33:16Speaker 3: when we were having conversations about how to stay secure,
- 33:19Speaker 3: it was really like searching things, paying for things. But
- 33:23Speaker 3: I guess it stands to reason that in twenty twenty
- 33:25Speaker 3: three you might be using Google Maps to access just
- 33:29Speaker 3: like where am I going if I need to go
- 33:30Speaker 3: to go get an abortion, like where am I headed?
- 33:32Speaker 3: And it kind of reminds me of like the throwback idea,
- 33:35Speaker 3: how before the ubiquity of things like GPS, you had to.
- 33:39Speaker 5: Just know where you were going.
- 33:41Speaker 3: And I certainly there are places that I've been multiple
- 33:44Speaker 3: times in my life. I could get there through muscle memory.
- 33:47Speaker 3: Now with GPS, I'm like, oh, how do I get there?
- 33:50Speaker 3: And Yeah, it's just a good reminder of how much
- 33:53Speaker 3: these platforms like Google have become commonplace in our life,
- 33:58Speaker 3: and how they've gotten between us and the things that
- 34:00Speaker 3: we need to do, and.
- 34:02Speaker 5: We don't even we don't even necessarily really think.
- 34:04Speaker 1: About it, right, it's it's like a part of your
- 34:07Speaker 1: every day. It's like, how I'm not going to get
- 34:10Speaker 1: out a map. I often remember this time I had
- 34:12Speaker 1: to like proNT out a map quest page to go
- 34:16Speaker 1: meet a friend and I could never find her, and
- 34:18Speaker 1: my dad and I got in a huge fight about it.
- 34:20Speaker 2: I was like, this is what the map quests.
- 34:24Speaker 1: But now it's just like part of her every day
- 34:26Speaker 1: life and we don't think about it until it goes away,
- 34:28Speaker 1: and then you realize, like how much you rely on
- 34:30Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. And that's true with this the
- 34:34Speaker 1: clip that you just played of like you know, email
- 34:38Speaker 1: and using your credit card and your debit card, and
- 34:43Speaker 1: it kind of it bums me out because it felt
- 34:45Speaker 1: so much like how I went about downloading music illegally
- 34:49Speaker 1: for a while. And this is like a health procedure,
- 34:53Speaker 1: Like yeahal health procedure, and we're treating.
- 34:55Speaker 2: It like I'm on lime wire and the middle.
- 34:58Speaker 4: Ratle Wow throw it back.
- 35:02Speaker 8: Yeah.
- 35:02Speaker 4: I'm thinking about how people get the season desist from
- 35:05Speaker 4: fbis for downloading movies today and even maybe a knock
- 35:09Speaker 4: on the door. They go to that level just for
- 35:12Speaker 4: a movie. Don't get me wrong, you know whatever capitalism
- 35:15Speaker 4: it is where it is. But all the stuff that
- 35:18Speaker 4: I'm thinking about as we're sitting here talking about it,
- 35:21Speaker 4: I'm like, Yeah, I use GPS just to go home,
- 35:23Speaker 4: and half the time it's because I want to get
- 35:25Speaker 4: traffic information. I need an ATA and I need to
- 35:28Speaker 4: know which was the best route and all these things,
- 35:30Speaker 4: and Google Map is my way to go obviously for
- 35:33Speaker 4: all of that. It's not just for the direction, and
- 35:35Speaker 4: sometimes it's to tell me that something's closed or open
- 35:37Speaker 4: half the time. And I can't imagine not using it
- 35:40Speaker 4: at this point because I'm so reliant on that for
- 35:43Speaker 4: my information, because I don't listen to live broadcast like
- 35:46Speaker 4: radio when they used to do I guess they still
- 35:48Speaker 4: do traffic and weather and such, but I don't. I
- 35:51Speaker 4: literally say hey, Google, what's this? Something hucks back to
- 35:54Speaker 4: me okay, but you know just how quickly that becomes
- 35:58Speaker 4: the solution. And then hearing her talking about these processes,
- 36:02Speaker 4: it reminds me of trying to do like a spy movie, yeah,
- 36:06Speaker 4: where we have to go get a burner phone with
- 36:08Speaker 4: a burner credit card and make sure that we take
- 36:12Speaker 4: out the chip just in case that that gets followed.
- 36:14Speaker 4: I'm like the links that people are gonna have to
- 36:17Speaker 4: go to and most of the people who are having
- 36:19Speaker 4: to access this type of care do, as you said,
- 36:22Speaker 4: do not know how to do this, probably can't afford
- 36:24Speaker 4: to do some of these things, may not even have
- 36:26Speaker 4: access because we know that vanilla card, I don't buy
- 36:29Speaker 4: that because there's a three dollars fee at the very least,
- 36:32Speaker 4: that pisses me off.
- 36:33Speaker 3: Yeah, no, you're angry about the wrong thing, right, No,
- 36:37Speaker 3: it's a totally a legitimate thing to be angry about.
- 36:39Speaker 3: And I think, like you know, I don't want to
- 36:43Speaker 3: make it sound like I am on like a like
- 36:46Speaker 3: I am so much more digitally secure than you, like,
- 36:48Speaker 3: I don't use these things.
- 36:49Speaker 5: I have a smartphone I could not find I cannot.
- 36:52Speaker 3: Get anywhere without Google Maps. I use these tools regularly.
- 36:56Speaker 3: I'm not suggesting that people who are not actively doing
- 37:00Speaker 3: something that is potentially criminalized or illegal should stop using
- 37:06Speaker 3: Google Maps, should stop using Gmail, should should do these things. Right,
- 37:10Speaker 3: that's not necessarily realistic in twenty twenty three. I don't
- 37:13Speaker 3: live my life that way, but I do think it
- 37:16Speaker 3: is worth stepping back and just questioning what we give
- 37:20Speaker 3: up when we get these conveniences in our life and
- 37:24Speaker 3: just having an awareness of that, because yeah, I want
- 37:27Speaker 3: to be able to find the quickest route home, I
- 37:29Speaker 3: want to be able to avoid traffic. I want to
- 37:31Speaker 3: know if there's a police officer with a scanner there,
- 37:33Speaker 3: or a toll or whatever, or a road closure that
- 37:36Speaker 3: is convenient. That is how that is a convenient way
- 37:38Speaker 3: to live modern life in twenty twenty three. But it's
- 37:41Speaker 3: not just something that I'm being given without a cost.
- 37:44Speaker 3: And so I think that we should be really aware
- 37:46Speaker 3: and have a really good sense of what those costs are,
- 37:49Speaker 3: because it can be easy to think that there is
- 37:51Speaker 3: no cost and there's no such thing as a free lunch.
- 37:54Speaker 5: There is a cost.
- 37:55Speaker 3: You know, My dad is someone who does not trust GPS,
- 37:59Speaker 3: so he doesn't have when he gets in the car
- 38:01Speaker 3: to go on a trip, he's got those old.
- 38:03Speaker 5: School big road atlases under his.
- 38:06Speaker 3: Seat still in twenty twenty three, God love them, and like,
- 38:10Speaker 3: but it's like as inconvenient as that is, that like
- 38:13Speaker 3: that is he's gaining something, So it's it's it's really
- 38:16Speaker 3: it's really about all of us making a cost benefit
- 38:20Speaker 3: analysis of what we are giving up versus what we
- 38:22Speaker 3: are getting and not thinking that like, oh, we're just
- 38:25Speaker 3: getting this cool new way to have a modern convenience
- 38:28Speaker 3: in our life that's just coming at no cost for us.
- 38:30Speaker 5: There is a cost and we should be aware of it.
- 38:33Speaker 4: And that's the thing is, like the conversation is, should
- 38:35Speaker 4: there be a cost? Why can't we have access to
- 38:39Speaker 4: these amazing things? Yes, the privacy thing maybe, But even
- 38:43Speaker 4: on top of that, the fact that there is a
- 38:45Speaker 4: chance of being persecuted and prosecuted for a thing that
- 38:47Speaker 4: shouldn't be even a law, you know, to begin with,
- 38:50Speaker 4: and having conversations like people who are going after people
- 38:53Speaker 4: and who they're going after, and we know that these
- 38:55Speaker 4: laws typically go after the marginalized people as well as
- 38:59Speaker 4: those in the lower or the social economic status. And
- 39:01Speaker 4: it's that that really is the burden of it all,
- 39:05Speaker 4: is that what this is doing is waging a war
- 39:08Speaker 4: and going after and persecuting people who in themselves are
- 39:12Speaker 4: already down and out. I guess it is the best
- 39:14Speaker 4: way to put it, or already put at the bottom
- 39:18Speaker 4: end of the poll, like they're not having the opportunities
- 39:20Speaker 4: or the ability to even defend themselves. Some of the
- 39:23Speaker 4: cases that have come forward as abortion cases having miscarriages
- 39:25Speaker 4: who have been taken out of context and say they
- 39:28Speaker 4: try to get an abortion and a lot of them
- 39:30Speaker 4: are refugees or in the immigrant status that I've seen
- 39:34Speaker 4: so many stories of that, and they have no way
- 39:36Speaker 4: of defending themselves because they don't get legal help. Typically
- 39:41Speaker 4: the good legal help will say it that way or
- 39:43Speaker 4: even the hearing. And when we talk about people who
- 39:45Speaker 4: are being held for immigration violations, like we've seen so
- 39:50Speaker 4: many conversations, well not enough because it doesn't get publicized
- 39:54Speaker 4: where convictions and things are of that nature coming out
- 39:57Speaker 4: from that or going after people who cannot get good representation.
- 40:01Speaker 4: And again, these laws even though it does affect everyone
- 40:04Speaker 4: and we should all be talking about it, but we
- 40:06Speaker 4: know that who are truly affected are those who can't
- 40:09Speaker 4: represent themselves and advocate for themselves. And that's the whole conversation,
- 40:13Speaker 4: is what is happening, who is who is doing this?
- 40:15Speaker 4: And why can't we be safe from this? Why can't
- 40:17Speaker 4: we like this shouldn't be one of the cost benefits.
- 40:20Speaker 4: It shouldn't be one or the other. It should be
- 40:22Speaker 4: that we have the rights to do this and feel
- 40:24Speaker 4: safe at the same time.
- 40:26Speaker 3: I mean, like you put it so well, privacy is
- 40:28Speaker 3: a right. Digital privacy is a right, especially when it
- 40:31Speaker 3: comes to things that are sensitive like our health information
- 40:34Speaker 3: or health data visiting places like shelters or clinics. We
- 40:37Speaker 3: should have an expectation of privacy around those issues. If
- 40:42Speaker 3: you are someone who is already burdened by being a
- 40:46Speaker 3: marginalized person in society, if you are already burdened by
- 40:49Speaker 3: you know, maybe not having stable housing or not, or
- 40:53Speaker 3: having difficulties in your life on top of that, you
- 40:55Speaker 3: shouldn't have to know what a tore browser is just
- 40:58Speaker 3: to make safe decisions for your because of the whims of.
- 41:01Speaker 5: A company like Google.
- 41:02Speaker 3: But right now, that's the landscape that Google is creating,
- 41:06Speaker 3: and they have the power and the ability to change that.
- 41:10Speaker 3: They have said they are going to not do that,
- 41:13Speaker 3: and yet they just aren't. And so I completely agree
- 41:15Speaker 3: with you. I think that Google needs to decide if
- 41:18Speaker 3: they are going to be in the business of creating.
- 41:20Speaker 5: A world where privacy is a right.
- 41:24Speaker 3: And people have the expectation of privacy or not, and
- 41:26Speaker 3: if they're not going to, don't say otherwise. I think
- 41:29Speaker 3: that's kind of one of the reasons why I get
- 41:31Speaker 3: so angry about this, is like they're able to enjoy
- 41:34Speaker 3: this public perception of proactively trying to keep people a
- 41:39Speaker 3: little bit safer while not doing that. So why did
- 41:42Speaker 3: just say it if you weren't going to do it?
- 41:44Speaker 3: You know.
- 41:45Speaker 1: Yeah, and I've been making all this money. I can
- 41:47Speaker 1: only assume they just really make a lot of money
- 41:49Speaker 1: off our data.
- 41:50Speaker 3: So they're like, oh, like, I will talk all day.
- 41:53Speaker 3: Let's just say your assumption is correct. Your assumption is very,
- 41:58Speaker 3: very correct. And yeah, I think that, like, we need
- 42:02Speaker 3: to fundamentally change our understanding when it comes to the
- 42:06Speaker 3: relationship between users, our data and platforms. Like the fact
- 42:10Speaker 3: that Google it's so extracted, they take so much from us,
- 42:14Speaker 3: they can lie and misrepresent what they take from us
- 42:16Speaker 3: and how they take it, and they can make billions
- 42:18Speaker 3: of dollars off of it. Something is wrong with that equation.
- 42:21Speaker 3: We need to fundamentally rethink the relationship that users have
- 42:24Speaker 3: with platforms.
- 42:25Speaker 8: Yes, and there has been some attempts recently to kind
- 42:44Speaker 8: of change the situation.
- 42:45Speaker 5: That's right.
- 42:46Speaker 3: So just last week, nearly a dozen cent A Democrats
- 42:49Speaker 3: wrote to Google with questions about how it deletes users'
- 42:51Speaker 3: location history when they have visited these sensitive locations like
- 42:54Speaker 3: abortion clinics, expressing concerns that the company may not be
- 42:58Speaker 3: consistently deleting the data as promised. These included Senators Amy Klobachar,
- 43:03Speaker 3: Elizabeth Warren, and Mazie Herano asking for answers from Google
- 43:06Speaker 3: about the types of locations they consider to be sensitive
- 43:08Speaker 3: and how long it takes for the company to automatically
- 43:11Speaker 3: delete visit history. Again they Google said it was going
- 43:14Speaker 3: to be quote soon, Accountable Tech found that it hadn't
- 43:18Speaker 3: happened in thirty days after that visit, So, you know,
- 43:22Speaker 3: I think these senators are right to at least get
- 43:24Speaker 3: some clarity about, well, what do you consider soon? And
- 43:27Speaker 3: just a few days ago, Google was sued by an
- 43:29Speaker 3: anonymous complaintant claiming that Google unlawfully collects health data, including
- 43:34Speaker 3: abortion searches, on third party websites that use Google tech.
- 43:38Speaker 3: Jane Doe, who is the complaintant their legal representation, is
- 43:42Speaker 3: looking to get the case certified as a class action
- 43:44Speaker 3: suit and claims that her private information was intercepted by
- 43:48Speaker 3: Google when she used the scheduling pages on Planned Parenthood's
- 43:51Speaker 3: website in twenty eighteen to search for an abortion provider.
- 43:54Speaker 3: So I think it's interesting that she is trying to
- 43:56Speaker 3: pursue this as a class action litigation because I do
- 44:00Speaker 3: think there is a class of people, like a large
- 44:05Speaker 3: group of people who are facing harm because of Google,
- 44:08Speaker 3: and it's not individuals, it is all of us. We
- 44:11Speaker 3: are a collective harmed group. And so I really am
- 44:13Speaker 3: interested in the fact that this isn't just.
- 44:15Speaker 5: One person doing Google.
- 44:16Speaker 3: She is trying to do it as a class action
- 44:18Speaker 3: lawsuit because it is representative, in my opinion, of a
- 44:22Speaker 3: collective harm.
- 44:23Speaker 4: That's interesting because we know that there's some class action
- 44:25Speaker 4: suits happening with Facebook, and it's a pretty big deal
- 44:28Speaker 4: because there's a couple with billions of dollars in hand.
- 44:32Speaker 4: We know that the EU has gone after a couple
- 44:36Speaker 4: of companies as well belowly vis it Twitter for billions
- 44:39Speaker 4: of dollars in fines possibly, But that's what's going to
- 44:41Speaker 4: change anything. We know that it's not actually about humanity,
- 44:44Speaker 4: it's about the money, and if it's going to cost
- 44:46Speaker 4: the money, then they're more likely to do something as
- 44:49Speaker 4: long as they don't have to pay out whatever it
- 44:51Speaker 4: may be, and just ten dollars a few pennies to
- 44:54Speaker 4: millions of people. There's a lot of money, so that's
- 44:57Speaker 4: actually a smart way to go.
- 44:59Speaker 5: I think Yeah, to just do a quick plug.
- 45:01Speaker 3: If you are a US resident who used Facebook between
- 45:04Speaker 3: May twenty fourth, two thousand and seven and December twenty second,
- 45:07Speaker 3: twenty twenty two, you can file a monetary claim as
- 45:10Speaker 3: long as you do so before August twenty fifth, twenty
- 45:13Speaker 3: twenty three. And so it is. You know, for a
- 45:17Speaker 3: company like Facebook, it probably won't won't be more than
- 45:21Speaker 3: like a slap on the wrist for them. It probably
- 45:22Speaker 3: won't be something that they really like feel. But if
- 45:26Speaker 3: you are in the group that I just mentioned, I
- 45:29Speaker 3: absolutely am in that group, and I'm filing for my claim.
- 45:34Speaker 3: I think that anybody listening who was in that group
- 45:36Speaker 3: should file for their claim because that is the only
- 45:38Speaker 3: way that these companies have. That's the only kind of
- 45:41Speaker 3: I mean, it makes me sad to say, but like,
- 45:42Speaker 3: we don't have a lot of recourse for companies like
- 45:45Speaker 3: like Meta and Google. There's not much that the average
- 45:47Speaker 3: user can do that will actually make them feel this.
- 45:51Speaker 3: And one way that we have is hitting them in
- 45:53Speaker 3: their pocketbook. And so, yeah, get your settlement, even if
- 45:55Speaker 3: it's ten dollars, Get your ten dollars and buy yourself
- 45:57Speaker 3: a coffee whatever.
- 46:00Speaker 4: Knowing that it's building up just we're just building up
- 46:02Speaker 4: the cost. And that's the thing is like we see
- 46:05Speaker 4: in so many things we've talked about civil suits when
- 46:07Speaker 4: it comes to like rape cases and sexual assault cases
- 46:11Speaker 4: and why they're important even though so many be like, oh,
- 46:13Speaker 4: you're just trying to go after the money. No, this
- 46:15Speaker 4: is a big deal because we know this is a
- 46:17Speaker 4: form of punishment that is more likely to happen rather
- 46:21Speaker 4: than the guilty not guilty judicial level of punishment. We
- 46:25Speaker 4: know this, So having things like this is really important
- 46:28Speaker 4: because it does make a stand, whether it's big or small.
- 46:32Speaker 4: Same thing with the dominion lawsuit that happened with Fox.
- 46:36Speaker 4: It was a big deal, like people were mad that
- 46:37Speaker 4: they settled, but that cost really did hit them in
- 46:41Speaker 4: the end. And these types of things. Is this conversation
- 46:43Speaker 4: and it's going to be a precedent of what can
- 46:46Speaker 4: be filed later on because obviously things are building up.
- 46:49Speaker 4: As long as Google holds out and not actually deleting,
- 46:52Speaker 4: they're going to get more cases. If this goes forward
- 46:54Speaker 4: and wins, they're going to get more piled on. And
- 46:57Speaker 4: that's a good thing. A sad thing that it has
- 47:00Speaker 4: to get to that point, but it is a good thing.
- 47:02Speaker 4: So it's something that definitely we should watch definitely.
- 47:05Speaker 3: And you know, one question that I have is how
- 47:08Speaker 3: is it legal for Google to say one thing about
- 47:11Speaker 3: their privacy policies and do another.
- 47:13Speaker 5: I again, I'm no lawyer.
- 47:16Speaker 3: I don't know how it is legal, though, Like I
- 47:18Speaker 3: fully do not understand how Google can mislead the public
- 47:21Speaker 3: about data privacy practices. How that is legal under the
- 47:24Speaker 3: Federal Trade Commission. I'm the expert.
- 47:27Speaker 5: Don't understand it.
- 47:28Speaker 3: Maybe it's not legal, but whether or not it's illegal,
- 47:31Speaker 3: it is certainly unethical. It is unethical to say one
- 47:34Speaker 3: thing and do another, and it is certainly unsafe. And
- 47:36Speaker 3: the bottom line is that people deserve privacy and it
- 47:39Speaker 3: shouldn't be up to the whims of the people who
- 47:41Speaker 3: run Google to decide whether or not we get it
- 47:44Speaker 3: or how.
- 47:45Speaker 5: We get it.
- 47:45Speaker 3: We really need to rethink this this schema where the
- 47:51Speaker 3: people like tech leaders at Google, they are the ones
- 47:53Speaker 3: who decide whether or not we get privacy. People deserve privacy,
- 47:57Speaker 3: especially when it comes to their health information, full stop, period,
- 48:00Speaker 3: end of sentence.
- 48:01Speaker 4: Right, And I wonder how much the government has done
- 48:04Speaker 4: because they've really taken away a lot of any kind
- 48:07Speaker 4: of power against these companies because we've seen so the
- 48:11Speaker 4: amount of updated agreements in ordering to use anything like
- 48:15Speaker 4: I think I got it for TikTok. I got well, TikTok.
- 48:18Speaker 4: We know they're underflying. We had that episode, but they
- 48:20Speaker 4: had a new agreement. I know Samsung continues to do
- 48:23Speaker 4: it every few months and the amount of privacy is
- 48:27Speaker 4: going away like it's it's interesting how quickly they're changing it.
- 48:29Speaker 4: And there's nothing you can do because you're already sucked
- 48:31Speaker 4: in to that system and that's what Google is doing.
- 48:34Speaker 4: And because of the way that the government has allowed
- 48:37Speaker 4: for these companies to be territorial and to continue to
- 48:40Speaker 4: gather that data. I'm not a conspiracist, but I think
- 48:44Speaker 4: there's a bit conspiracy behind this and about how much
- 48:46Speaker 4: control they want to have over the individual citizens when
- 48:50Speaker 4: that's concerning.
- 48:51Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think the I'm with you, you don't
- 48:54Speaker 3: tell that the conspiracy theorist at all. And I think
- 48:57Speaker 3: the first thing that we can do is really understand
- 49:00Speaker 3: and what's being asked of us. And it's not easy
- 49:03Speaker 3: because they don't make it easy.
- 49:05Speaker 5: Like when you.
- 49:06Speaker 3: Get that twenty five page thing that you have to
- 49:09Speaker 3: scroll down just to like log onto your phone.
- 49:12Speaker 5: Come on, be real, Like, who is reading that?
- 49:14Speaker 3: Like, I don't false anybody for being like, oh, I'll
- 49:16Speaker 3: just hit agree. But it shouldn't be that way. You
- 49:20Speaker 3: shouldn't have to be a trained lawyer or trained in
- 49:23Speaker 3: understanding tech speak and have to parse a thirty page
- 49:28Speaker 3: privacy agreement that you have to click through just to
- 49:31Speaker 3: get to your email, just to exist safely online with
- 49:35Speaker 3: privacy and dignity, like.
- 49:37Speaker 5: People deserve that.
- 49:39Speaker 3: We have created, and we've accepted and tolerated and created
- 49:41Speaker 3: a system that is so burdenous to the average citizen,
- 49:45Speaker 3: and it should not be.
- 49:46Speaker 2: That way right right, And.
- 49:50Speaker 1: There is so much going on right now in terms
- 49:53Speaker 1: of technology and tumultuous times and technology and understanding those
- 49:59Speaker 1: kinds of things, and you Bridget are amazing at explaining
- 50:04Speaker 1: those kinds of things. So we always love having you here.
- 50:07Speaker 1: But you're also like breaking down these issues all not
- 50:12Speaker 1: without us on your own show.
- 50:17Speaker 3: Thank you for that little introduction. So yeah, I don't
- 50:22Speaker 3: know if other folks feel it, but I think in
- 50:24Speaker 3: this particular moment in time, you know, we always talk
- 50:27Speaker 3: about this sort of like the future of tech and
- 50:30Speaker 3: what's next, it feels like we are in that moment today,
- 50:33Speaker 3: right when it comes to platforms, with the state of
- 50:36Speaker 3: Twitter and like what new platforms we're going to you know,
- 50:38Speaker 3: pop up and where a we're all going to spend
- 50:40Speaker 3: our time digitally, when it comes to conversations about the
- 50:42Speaker 3: rise of AI, and when it comes to the increasing
- 50:45Speaker 3: threat of you know, expanding tech surveillance, like we talked
- 50:49Speaker 3: about today, it feels like a very weird time for
- 50:52Speaker 3: technology and the Internet and where we're going in the future.
- 50:55Speaker 3: And it feels like all that future conversation is actually
- 50:58Speaker 3: here today, and so we're starting we have a new
- 51:01Speaker 3: season on There Are No Girls on the Internet exploring
- 51:04Speaker 3: how increasingly it feels like this future of technology is
- 51:06Speaker 3: happening now, precisely because it is so important that the
- 51:11Speaker 3: voices of people who are traditionally left out of these conversations, women,
- 51:14Speaker 3: people of color, queer folks, disabled folks, working folks are
- 51:17Speaker 3: not left out of those conversations.
- 51:18Speaker 5: And so if you want to.
- 51:20Speaker 3: Parse what it all means, where we've been and where
- 51:23Speaker 3: we're going, and what we need to know to make
- 51:25Speaker 3: sure that our voices are centered in these conversations, please
- 51:28Speaker 3: check out the new season of My Pod.
- 51:29Speaker 5: There are no girls on the internet where we are
- 51:31Speaker 5: doing just that.
- 51:32Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely, listeners go check it out. It does feel
- 51:36Speaker 1: like we're in the is it Moore's curve? It feels
- 51:39Speaker 1: like we're in the like real upward.
- 51:41Speaker 5: For yeah, kind of siry? Good? Like what is it?
- 51:45Speaker 4: Like?
- 51:45Speaker 5: Good? She? Is it geometry? What is my curves and stuff? Good?
- 51:49Speaker 5: Math reference? And wait a minute, wait math?
- 51:55Speaker 1: You know that might not even be the correct term,
- 51:56Speaker 1: but I think it is. And if it's not, then
- 51:58Speaker 1: that's really funny.
- 51:58Speaker 4: So whatever, Yeah curve.
- 52:05Speaker 1: Yeah, soll we always we love having you, We've missed you,
- 52:09Speaker 1: and we always take up so much of your time,
- 52:11Speaker 1: so I appreciate it.
- 52:12Speaker 2: We could just talk to you forever about all kinds
- 52:14Speaker 2: of things.
- 52:15Speaker 3: Oh my god, the pleasure, the pleasure is so mine.
- 52:17Speaker 3: This is like, Yeah, I could talk to you guys,
- 52:20Speaker 3: you all all day because it's just so nice to
- 52:22Speaker 3: connect on these issues and I it's nice to be
- 52:24Speaker 3: able to talk to them with YouTube.
- 52:26Speaker 2: Yes, yes, it really is. Well, where can the good
- 52:29Speaker 2: listeners find you? Well?
- 52:31Speaker 3: As I said, you can check out my podcast. There
- 52:32Speaker 3: are no girls on the internet. Wherever you podcast we are, there.
- 52:36Speaker 5: Can follow me. I'm still on Twitter.
- 52:38Speaker 3: Kind of at Bridget Marie can follow me on TikTok
- 52:42Speaker 3: at Bridget max Pods, I can follow me on Instagram
- 52:45Speaker 3: at Bridget Marie and DC and I would love to
- 52:47Speaker 3: have you on any of those platforms.
- 52:48Speaker 2: Yes, and also beef, Oh yeah, beef.
- 52:51Speaker 5: Don't don't sleep on beef.
- 52:53Speaker 3: It's a little bit different than my usual content because
- 52:55Speaker 3: it's just like so much of my content is like
- 52:57Speaker 3: heavier and based around the Internet and like just like
- 53:00Speaker 3: here's what you need to know if you're trying to
- 53:01Speaker 3: have a good time and just nerd ad on some
- 53:03Speaker 3: historical rivalries like Who's not definitely check out, be super fun.
- 53:08Speaker 1: See what's going on in the advice call of World exactly. Yes, Yes, well,
- 53:13Speaker 1: thank you, thank you, thank you so much again for
- 53:15Speaker 1: being here, listeners. If you would like to contact us,
- 53:18Speaker 1: you can. Our email is Stephani your mom stuff at
- 53:20Speaker 1: iHeartMedia dot com. You can find us on Twitter, I'm
- 53:22Speaker 1: most Stuff podcast or in instagrament TikTok at Stuff I
- 53:25Speaker 1: Never Told you, also on YouTube.
- 53:27Speaker 2: We do have a book coming out.
- 53:28Speaker 1: You can pre order it as Stuff you Should Read
- 53:30Speaker 1: Books dot com. Thank you as always to our super producer, Christina,
- 53:35Speaker 1: our executive producer Maya and our contributor Joey.
- 53:37Speaker 2: Thank you and thanks to you for listening stuff I
- 53:39Speaker 2: Never told you. Disrection of by Heart Radio.
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