A national anti-abortion group used cell phone location data to target visitors of Planned Parenthood clinics in 48 states with abortion misinformation, according to an investigation from Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).
The Veritas Society, a nonprofit created by the Wisconsin Right to Life, used a data broker system called Near Intelligence to target people whose cell phone location data showed they had visited any of the 600 Planned Parenthood reproductive health clinics across the country. Wyden detailed his office’s findings Tuesday in a letter to the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission, urging the FTC to better protect location data.
Wyden’s office found that Veritas Society hired an advertising agency to use Near Intelligence’s website to draw a line around each Planned Parenthood clinic and clinic parking lots. Anyone with a cell phone who stepped into those targeted areas were served social media ads with anti-abortion messaging or abortion misinformation. The senator began investigating Near Intelligence in May 2023 after The Wall Street Journal revealed Veritas Society was peddling abortion misinformation using cell phone data.
The Veritas Society ad campaign ran from late 2019 through the summer of 2022, after the Supreme Court repealed federal abortion protections, according to Wyden’s investigation. The Veritas Society reported that in 2020, in Wisconsin alone, the organization served over 14 million advertisements to people who visited abortion clinics as well as “ads to those devices across the women’s social pages, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat,” according to a web page that has since been removed.
The Wisconsin Right to Life and Near Intelligence did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Data privacy has become increasingly important since Roe v. Wade fell in June 2022, and over a dozen states criminalized abortion care. Cell phones effectively track everywhere a person goes, and data brokers like Near Intelligence are legally allowed to buy and sell this information. Tech giants like Google pledged to delete the location data of users’ visits to abortion clinics after Roe fell, but the company did not keep their promise. Location data can be weaponized against abortion providers or people seeking care by anti-choice lawmakers and groups like Veritas Society.
Several abortion-rights states passed legislation to safeguard location data after the Supreme Court repealed federal abortion protections, anticipating that data privacy would be the next point of attack for the anti-abortion movement.
Veritas Society touts itself as “leading the way in pro-life digital marketing technology,” according to its website, which adds: “Imagine: Reaching pregnant women when the danger to their unborn children is greatest – when Mom is in the midst of making a life-or-death decision.”
“Took the first pill at the clinic? It may not be too late to save your pregnancy,” one social media ad read from Veritas Society, according to The Wall Street Journal investigation.
If someone clicked into the ad, they were directed to a website that gave them two options: “I want to undo the abortion pill” or “I am thinking about the abortion pill.” Reversal of a medication abortion is not scientifically possible, though the rhetoric is often used by anti-choice organizations.
The Wall Street Journal uncovered how the anti-abortion group was targeting visitors of reproductive health clinics; Wyden’s office built off of the publication’s investigation by revealing how widespread Veritas Society’s ad reach was.
“If a data broker could track Americans’ cell phones to help extremists target misinformation to people at hundreds of Planned Parenthood locations across the United States, a right-wing prosecutor could use that same information to put women in jail,” Wyden said in a Tuesday press release.
“Federal watchdogs should hold the data broker accountable for abusing Americans’ private information,” Wyden added. “And Congress needs to step up as soon as possible to ensure extremist politicians can’t buy this kind of sensitive data without a warrant.”
Near Intelligence is currently being investigated by the SEC and filed for bankruptcy at the end of last year. Wyden is urging the FTC to block any sale of the data collected from users who visited Planned Parenthood clinics when Near Intelligence sells off its assets.
Read Wyden’s letter to the FTC and SEC in full here.