Abortion
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Meta and Google face claims of restricting reproductive health ads and fueling misinformation
A new report claims Meta and Google have banned educational reproductive health ads, allowed misinformation to fester and hosted conspiracies.
FTC sues company for selling identifiable location data, including abortion clinic visits
The agency says 'Kochava’s sale of geolocation data puts consumers at significant risk.'
Google Search and Maps results will confirm if a medical center offers abortions
In the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned, Google announced that it is making it easier to use its Maps and Search products to find medical providers that offer abortions. When someone searches for specific services and Google has confirmation that a location provides those services, it'll be clearly labeled in Search and Maps.
Meta says it mistakenly restricted a Planned Parenthood post about abortion pills
Facebook parent company Meta says it by mistake recently removed a Planned Parenthood of Michigan post that included information on where to obtain abortion medication.
Yelp adds a warning label to anti-abortion center listings
The notice says such centers 'typically provide limited medical services and may not have licensed medical professionals onsite.'
Google is failing to protect users and contractors post-Roe, workers say
Alphabet was among the many tech companies to alter its healthcare and data policies once abortion access was no longer guaranteed. Workers say the company isn't doing nearly enough.
Hundreds of TV writers call on Netflix, Apple to improve safety measures in anti-abortion states
More than 400 creators and showrunners made similar demands of Disney, Amazon and other Hollywood giants.
Recommended Reading: How Sony's AI outran the best sim racers
Recommended Reading highlights the week's best writing on technology and more.
GOP attorneys general warn Google not to suppress anti-abortion centers in search results
The 17 AGs suggested that doing so could lead to investigations and legal action.
YouTube pulls videos with information on unsafe abortion methods
An information panel will appear next to abortion-related videos and associated search results.
FTC says it will pursue companies that exploit location and health data
The Biden Administration has tasked the agency to guard data privacy post-Roe.
Amazon to limit purchases of Plan B and other emergency contraceptive pills
Amazon is the latest, and the largest, retailer to cap purchases of the drug.
Google tells workers they can relocate 'without justification' following Supreme Court decision
Google will allow employees to move between states in response to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
US senators ask FTC to investigate Apple and Google over mobile tracking
They mentioned how the information could be used against people seeking abortions.
Senators ask Apple and Google to prohibit data collection that targets abortion seekers
A group of US senators led by Ed Markey of Massachusetts is calling on Apple and Google to implement new app store policies that prohibit developers from collecting data that would threaten women seeking abortions.
Debunked: Ridiculous claims of 'pro-life' bias in Siri (Update: Apple responds)
Update: The New York Times has a response. Natalie Kerris, a spokeswoman for Apple, told them: "These are not intentional omissions meant to offend anyone. It simply means that as we bring Siri from beta to a final product, we find places where we can do better, and we will in the coming weeks." Think Progress, Slate, and a whole lot of other outlets are piling it on thick and claiming that Siri's search parameters have a "pro-life" bias because the service has difficulty locating abortion clinics or birth control services in many areas. "Siri's unhelpful and sometimes misleading answers to pressing health questions stand in stark contrast to her prompt and accurate responses to inquiries about nearby escort services," says Think Progress, while Slate goes even farther off the deep end and says, "many around the Web [are] wondering if Siri is pro-life and whether Apple is attempting to impose its morals upon the rest of us." This is a textbook example of sensationalistic media making something from absolutely nothing. If Siri's search parameters function the same way as other services (and I'm almost certain they do), it's likely that in addition to the business name itself, a business will have a cluster of tagged metadata associated with it. Siri's association with Yelp in the U.S. makes this sort of tagging extremely easy for restaurants and other retail services -- searching for something as simple as "hamburgers" or "Target" will return dozens of results in major cities. For other services -- birth control and abortion clinics being two examples -- Siri apparently relies on a much less extensive database than Yelp, with far less comprehensive tagging. All that Think Progress and Slate's "research" shows is that Apple isn't relying upon Google's database for such searches, either; a Google Maps search for "abortion clinic in Washington, D.C." turns up 10 results in the Maps app, while Siri returns only two (apparently invalid) results. If you're the type to leap to your keyboard and pound out a linkbaiting headline before warming up your logic circuits first, then sure, this might look like Apple once again being the "evil Big Brother" that the media's been trying to paint it as for years, this time passive-aggressively shoving a pro-life stance on people searching for women's health services. If you instead insert a couple minutes of logical thought between your fingers and the keyboard, it looks more like Apple's tagging services for Siri are incomplete when it has to source its searches from sources other than Yelp -- which is exactly what you'd expect from a BETA service that's been in widespread public use for less than two months as of this writing. At any rate, the central premise of this handwringing claim that Siri is "pro-life" is easy enough to debunk. Searches for "abortion clinic" or "birth control clinic" return few if any results in most areas, but I found results for "abortion clinic" in Denver, Milwaukee, New York City, and several other cities across the US. A Siri search for "Planned Parenthood" almost always returns results no matter where you search in the States -- because that search is powered by Yelp rather than whatever comparatively limited database Siri is using for more specific searches like "abortion clinic" or "birth control." If Siri is really supposed to be "pro-life" and "imposing morals" on its users, then searches for the politically charged Planned Parenthood clinics would also turn up no results, wouldn't they? Why searches for "abortion clinic" or "birth control" aren't also Yelp-powered is easy enough to discern; searching for "abortion clinic" in Washington, D.C. on yelp.com returns an array of ridiculous results such as "New York New York Salon" (the top result), McDonald's (not kidding), Ebenezers Coffeehouse, and Georgetown University Law Center. That's the downside of a crowdsourced search service. "Why not just source results from Google Maps?" you might ask. That's easy enough to answer: it's probably because Siri is designed to lessen Apple's dependence on its biggest competitor for search services. Does that do users any sort of disservice, especially to the extent that Think Progress and Slate claim? Not particularly, since either the Google-powered Maps app or a Google search within Safari are at most one or two taps away. Going by the hilariously flawed logic in Think Progress and Slate's reporting, I could just as easily say that Apple has a jingoistic pro-American bias because Siri's business and navigational searches only work in the U.S. "OH NOES, Siri can't find places in New Zealand, that must mean Apple hates Kiwis! Quickly Robin, to the Boycottmobile!" About an hour or so after I finished writing the above diatribe against the massive overreaction to this non-event, Apple confirmed to the New York Times that Siri's responses to queries for abortion clinics were a glitch. "These are not intentional omissions meant to offend anyone," an Apple spokesperson confirmed to the Times. "It simply means that as we bring Siri from beta to a final product, we find places where we can do better, and we will in the coming weeks." Critical thinking, ladies and gentlemen. It's not difficult. Note: Due to the inevitable storm in a teacup that results anytime anyone mentions the A-word, comments on this post will be heavily moderated. We will not approve comments from either side of the endless debate.
Abortions and cheat codes
Have you kids seen Juno, the latest film from director Jason Reitman (Thank You For Smoking)? It's a coming-of-age tale about an eccentric 16-year-old managing her unexpected pregnancy, and, in spite of its Dawson's Creek-esque dialogue and unrealistic plot, it's also a pretty good film, in our opinion. Considering the ubiquity of the Nintendo DS, it didn't surprise us to see the handheld make a cameo in the movie, but the particular setting in which the DS appeared was a surprise -- an abortion clinic. A teenage receptionist taps away on her portable while handing medical forms to the titular character, right before offering her a complimentary boysenberry-flavored condom. "My boyfriend wears them every time we have intercourse," she praises. "It makes his junk smell like pie." What could she have been playing on her DS, greeting and offering condoms to people all day while the women who've come in to get their "problems" fixed sit anxiously in the waiting room? Probably not Imagine Babyz!That's not the only time video games come up in Juno, either! Halfway through "Anyone Else But You," a song by The Moldy Peaches that plays several times during the film, one of the singers croons out the famous Konami code. How awesome is that? There's also a shortened version sung by Juno's stars, Michael Cera and Ellen Page, on the official soundtrack; it's totally wizard. You can hear the original track and watch a trailer for Juno right after the break.
