At the request of Nebraska police, Facebook handed the user data of a mother and daughter facing criminal charges for allegedly carrying out an illegal abortion, burning the fetus and then burying it, reports The Guardian. The 17-year-old, reports say, was more than 20 weeks pregnant. In Nebraska, abortions are banned after 20 weeks of pregnancy. The teenager is now being tried as an adult. Court documents filed in June show how tech companies, including Facebook, contribute to criminal prosecutions of abortion cases.
Experts say it also shows the importance of encryption and minimizing the amount of data Facebook stores on its users. A detective with the Norfolk police department asked Facebook for extensive user information for the teen’s mother, Jessica Burgess, dating back to 15 April 2022, including “profile contact information, wall postings, and friend listing, with Facebook IDs.” Jessica Burgess is charged with hiding a dead human body, performing an abortion as a non-licensed doctor and performing an abortion at more than 20 weeks. The latter two are considered felonies in Nebraska. Her daughter is facing three charges, including one felony. Privacy advocates argue that one of the only ways tech companies can avoid handing over sensitive abortion-related data to law enforcement is not to store it. In response to the story, Meta, Facebook’s parent company, released this statement.