“I Did Watch ‘The Handmaid's Tale’”: Threat Modeling Privacy Post-roe in the United States

Abstract

Now that the protections of Roe v. Wade are no longer available throughout the United States, the free flow of personal data can be used by legal authorities to provide evidence of felony. However, we know little about how impacted individuals approach their reproductive privacy in this new landscape. We conducted interviews with 15 individuals who may get/were pregnant to address this gap. While nearly all reported deleting period tracking apps, they were not willing to go much further, even while acknowledging the risks of generating data. Quite a few considered a more inhospitable, Handmaid's Tale like climate in which their medical history and movements would put them in legal peril but felt that, by definition, this reality was insuperable, and also that they were not the target—the notion that privileged location, stage of life did not make them the focus of government or vigilante efforts. We also found that certain individuals (often younger and/or with reproductive risks) were more attuned to the need to modify their technology or equipped to employ high and low-tech strategies. Using an intersectional lens, we discuss implications for media advocacy and propose privacy intermediation to frame our thinking about reproductive privacy.