Payment data can be used as evidence for abortion now that it’s illegal in some states in the US.
Since financial companies take several payment data from their customers, legal experts believe prosecutors can subpoena the records for abortion evidence.
Now that abortion is illegal in several US states, and criminal investigators could soon start hunting for evidence to prosecute those violating the law after digital payments have become the default for millions of young women.
Medical records are mostly the definitive proof of what currently is a crime; however, officials who can’t get it may look for evidence elsewhere. The data payment is mostly a high priority.
This tends to be a new venture for banking institutions and other payments firms on the criminal inquiry receiving ends.
Card issuers have become used to demands for user data in money laundering, illegal trafficking investigations, and terrorism. None have provoked the political, emotional, and legal pushback that abortion investigations have.
It’s known that the Fourth Amendment protects individuals’ privacy against government intrusion. This protection, however, weakens once people voluntarily share their details with third parties.
Card networks and issuers such as Mastercard and Visa don’t have lists of everything users pay for when they buy prescription drugs or other medications online and even when they buy health care providers’ services.
But evidence of patronage, like when a pharmacy sells only abortion pills, can expose an individual.
In the meantime, some financial institutions are getting ready to push back on demands for this data. One of the institutions is Amalgamated Bank, based in New York.
According to the bank, “Amalgamated Bank will carefully scrutinize any subpoenas for information related to the prosecution of women for exercising their right to choose and object to the fullest extent possible.”
The bank plans to notify its customers of the subpoenas unless investigators succeed in enforcing the bank not to reveal the subpoena’s existence.
Law enforcement officials can equally pursue subpoenas of firms that give debit cards on which flexible spending account dollars are loaded. Several employers offer health care spending accounts.
For instance, HealthEquity is a top administrator of the accounts. It discloses it’s reluctant to give up its transaction data.
The company’s chief executive, Jon Kessler revealed in an email, “The firm doesn’t comply with requests for medical expense data, including from law enforcement and other governmental entities, unless we’re specifically compelled by law to do so.”
The fact that several financial services firms are silent on this news isn’t surprising. Like others, they’re trying to navigate an entirely changed landscape.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay