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For people seeking abortions and also for their partners, it’s not hard to imagine how these digital footprints could suddenly become dangerous.

An Instagram search for “abortion pills,” a log of symptoms in a period tracking app, , even a to a friend or family member -- all of that could be , and with little protection from the Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches and seizures, Dellinger in a recent piece co-authored with Stephanie Pell of the Brookings Institution.

“In some respects, history is repeating itself,” Dellinger and Pell in a 2024 paper, “Bodies of evidence: The criminalization of abortion and surveillance of women in a post-Dobbs world.”

Indeed, since the 2022 Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, nearly have banned or limited access to abortion.

“It’s true we’ve been here before,” Dellinger said in a recent interview with Duke Today. “But we’re not just going back to something reminiscent of the pre-Roe era.”

That’s because so much of our day-to-day life now leaves a digital footprint, she explained.

Your Phone Reveals More About You Than You Think

But it’s not just people seeking abortions who have reason to be concerned.

Research shows that the data trails we leave on our smart phones or social media can be used to infer our political and religious beliefs to our medical conditions and sexual orientation.

In led by the University of Cambridge, researchers were able use Facebook likes to predict people’s personalities more accurately could.

The data that our devices collect can also be who may sell it without our knowledge to insurance companies, advertisers and other third parties.

In a led by of Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy, researchers identified more than 500 data broker websites selling information about U.S. military personnel, including their marital status, home addresses, net worth and credit rating, even their interests in gambling and the number and ages of their children.

The researchers were able to buy information about tens of thousands of servicemembers with little to no vetting, often for as little as 12 cents per person, that foreign adversaries could easily get their hands on such data and use it to blackmail or target servicemembers.

by Duke student , '22, found that Americans’ sensitive mental health conditions — ranging from depression and anxiety to PTSD, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and personality disorders — are also .

Health Data for Sale

In her classes, Dellinger said students are often surprised to learn that the U.S. has regulating how our personal data can be collected, shared, used and stored.

We do have laws that cover certain types of data, like HIPAA for health data, or that cover data related to certain populations, like FERPA for student data. But unlike places such as the European Union, “we don't have a comprehensive privacy law for the country,” Dellinger said.

“Many people also think ‘oh, if it's health information, it's going to be protected,’” Dellinger said. “That's totally understandable. But it’s really, really wrong.”

Let’s say you use WebMD to search symptoms or go to YouTube or ChatGPT for health advice. Or maybe you use a Fitbit or Apple Watch to monitor your heartrate while you work out, or use an app to track your periods. None of these are .

Given these realities, it would seem that no digital data can be perfectly private.

“I do agree that it is very, very difficult for folks to completely maintain their privacy,” said Nick Tripp, Interim Chief Information Security Officer at Duke.

“There's always the option of opting out” and forgoing things like social media, wearables, and smart gadgets altogether, he added.

“But I don't expect that most people are going to want to do that,” Tripp said.  

However, Tripp said there are things people can do to make their online activities more private.

The , for example, offers a checklist of tips to reduce tracking and data collection while browsing the web, using social media, installing apps and other situations. offer digital privacy tips specifically for people seeking abortions.

“But to some extent, if you participate, you are effectively agreeing to give up some of your privacy,” Tripp said.

“It’s a perfect storm of privacy problems. Twenty-first century surveillance puts this in an entirely different ballpark.”

Jolynn Dellinger, Duke Law

The Burden Is on the Consumer

Both Tripp and Dellinger agree that most people are unlikely to spend hours tweaking the default settings of every service they use.

“The way our current privacy protection is in the United States, it puts the burden on the consumer to protect themselves,” Dellinger said. “This is a political question that demands a political answer.”

It’s a view that .

In the post-Roe era, this information environment has had chilling effects on women’s reproductive health, said , associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Duke.

Those effects were echoed in an led by Drs. Gray and Jonas Swartz in collaboration with Duke oral historian , a research professor in history and the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute.

In 65 interviews their conducted with providers in 17 states and the District of Columbia, a picture emerged of reproductive healthcare in upheaval.

Some doctors described for common pregnancy complications, or doubts about their future practicing in states with abortion bans for f.

Others expressed concerns that a could leave new physicians inadequately prepared to or treat such as .

Still others worried that as start to with abortion bans for their training, the talent drain could exacerbate provider shortages in rural and underserved areas.

“I think when people really appreciate the extent of the consequences of state laws criminalizing abortion in the wake of Dobbs, it makes them very concerned about their future choices,” Dellinger said. “What jobs they can take, and where they can live safely and have access to health care in their reproductive years.”

“It’s a perfect storm of privacy problems,” she said. “Twenty-first century surveillance puts this in an entirely different ballpark.”