A marketer is targeting 'abortion-minded women' using their smartphones. Read more about this invasion of privacy and its risks for patients and providers at Rewire.news: https://rewire.news/?p=90251
Have you ever noticed an ad pop up on your phone for a store, just after you left or while you’re driving by?
Has Uber or Lyft ever popped up an ad that somehow knew you just landed at an airport in a new city?
In that case, you might have been targeted by what’s known as “geo-fencing.” Here’s how it works.
A marketer picks a target. It could be a building, a bridge, an airport or a city block -- pretty much anything they want, as long as they can set its latitude and longitude coordinates using specialized marketing software.
They can create a small fence, or a large one, depending on who they’re trying to target.
The zone they create is called a “geo fence.” Depending on your phone’s settings, marketers can see when you’re in the fence by tracking your GPS.
How do they decide which phones to target?
Every smartphone has a unique number called an advertising ID. That’s the particular copy of Android or iOS on your phone.
Marketers can link it to incredible amounts of data about what you do online.
If you bought groceries using an app, then shopped for diapers on Amazon, they’ve probably got you pegged as a parent. If marketers spot your phone in a Home Depot, a Bed, a Bath and Beyond and a Walmart, chances are you’ve just moved to a new home.
They can collate that data to make personas of each of us. That makes it even easier to send us ads for stuff we might buy.
Are they allowed to do that?
Yes. In fact, you probably let them.
Ever click “I agree” when an app asks if it can use your location?
Most of us have.
That means you’ve consented for those apps to track you, and probably, for them to sell your information to advertisers.
Most of the time, the ads we get on our phones seem benign. In fact, lots of people like them.
But there’s a creepier side to location tracking, and lots of scope for abuse.
Suppose you’re a woman age 18-24, and you visit a clinic that offers abortion care. Maybe you use Google Maps to find it. And while you’re waiting for your appointment, you might scroll through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or the news.
An ad pops up on your phone. It could be for anything—clothing, college courses, a competition. Even if you scroll past it, marketers can capture your ID. If you have location services enabled for that app, marketers can capture your location as well.
Anti-choice activists have paid for information about people who fit this profile. Young women who have gone near abortion clinics, hospitals or medical centers. They call them “abortion-minded women.”
Once they have your advertising ID, they can send you anti-choice messages, like ads for these “crisis pregnancy centers.”
CPCs masquerade as abortion clinics, but you can’t get an abortion there. You’re more likely to get a bunch of misinformation meant to scare you away from having an abortion.
Being tracked can also have safety implications. Say marketers notice the same phone going to a clinic five days a week. Chances are that phone belongs to an employee.
But they only know your phone’s advertising ID—not the name of the person who owns it, right? Well that’s true, so far.
Bad actors who want to know who’s having an abortion could trick women into giving up personal information. It’s as easy as pushing a bogus ad on a website you visit regularly offering a special deal, or a contest for something like “a free Playstation.”
If you sign up, they’d have your name, and whatever else the form asked. As well as all the other information linked to your persona.
Disable the location services on your phone any time you don’t want information to be gathered about your location or destination.
Don’t give location permissions to apps you don’t have to.
Opt out of targeted advertising on your phone. Google this for iPhone or Android.
Avoid sign-up services through mobile advertising or unfamiliar apps.
Install tracking protection on your phone through apps like Disconnect on Android and Focus on iOS.
Share this information so others can make informed choices, as well.
