| A separate hearing by a House committee currently negotiating a landmark data privacy bill is poised to touch on the collection of sensitive data by tech companies. A memo prepared for the hearing by majority staff on the House Energy and Commerce panel highlighted President Biden's executive order calling on federal agencies including the Federal Trade Commission to take greater steps to safeguard reproductive health data. The issue has been a major focus for many Democratic panel leaders. The session could also offer a window into how much lawmakers are factoring data privacy concerns post-Roe into their broader negotiations over a federal privacy bill. One top Democrat has voiced concern that their proposal would still leave women too vulnerable to privacy risks. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has separately said the caucus is exploring legislation that "[p]rotects women's most intimate and personal data stored in reproductive health apps." "Many fear that this information could be used against women by a sinister prosecutor in a state that criminalizes abortion," Pelosi wrote in a recent letter to House Democrats. While Democrats have called on tech companies to limit their data collection and for agencies to monitor for any overreach post-Roe, there's also growing pressure from tech groups for the federal government to check its own privacy practices. The Chamber of Progress, a center-left trade group that receives funding from top tech companies, recently urged the Justice Department to reconsider its position on digital privacy. The group wrote in a letter first reported by The Technology 202 that federal prosecutors have "repeatedly made arguments that undermine the Fourth Amendment protections for data." The group argued that those same tactics could be used to "target reproductive health organizations and clinics that may advise women on the availability of abortion services in other states or to create a dragnet to identify women who may seek reproductive services out of state." The missive highlights how there's growing scrutiny from all sides on both public and private collection of sensitive data and how it could be used in a post-Roe landscape. |
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