JALSA Makes Noise for The Location Shield Act
Make Noise for The Location Shield Act!
In support of The Location Shield Act (H.357 / S.148, An Act Protecting Reproductive Health Access, LGBTQ Lives, Religious Liberty, and Freedom of Movement by Banning the Sale of Cell Phone Location Information), the Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action (JALSA) today distributed graggers (pronounced GRAH-gers) to legislators as part of its “Make Noise for the Location Shield Act!” effort.
Graggers (acceptable alternative spellings include gragers and groggers) are ceremonial noisemakers used during the Jewish holiday of Purim. During Purim festivals, as the story of Queen Esther is recounted, people use graggers to make noise and drown out the name of the story’s villain, Haman, whenever he is mentioned. In the Book of Esther, Haman plotted to manipulate King Ahasuerus into exterminating all of the Jewish people in the Persian empire. In 2024, Purim began at sundown on Saturday, March 23, and ran through Sunday evening, March 24.
Recent media reports show cell phone location data is actively being collected on an enormous scale and anti-choice advocates are using it right here in Massachusetts to influence a person’s ability to seek abortion care. These reports come after investigations showed large data brokers have tracked people visiting over 600 Planned Parenthood locations and then provided the related data to an anti-abortion ad campaign. The Planned Parenthood locations were in 48 different states, including Massachusetts.
Passing The Location Shield Act will help ensure that people won’t be able to access the cell phone data of anyone who travels to Massachusetts. Therefore, unscrupulous actors will not be able to use the cell phone location data to determine if someone visited a facility that provides abortions, or, for that matter, specific places of worship, or gathering spots popular with the LGBTQ+ community while in our state. This vital legislation received a Joint Rule 10 extension through July 31.
The Location Shield Act would:
Prohibit companies from selling, leasing, trading, or renting location data
Require companies to obtain consent before collecting or processing location data
Allow companies to collect and process location data — with user consent — for legitimate purposes, such as:
Providing requested services to consumers
Responding to emergencies
Complying with state and federal law
This vital public safety and consumer safety measure is necessary because, for example:
Data brokers have continued to buy, repackage, and sell the location information of people visiting sensitive locations including abortion clinics, putting people who seek or provide care in our state at risk of prosecution and harassment.
Domestic abusers can purchase location data to track the whereabouts of their victims.
Employers can buy cellphone location data to track and discriminate against employees.
As Cindy Rowe, President and CEO of JALSA, testified on June 26, 2023, before the Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure, in support of The Location Shield Act:
We know that unscrupulous and unregulated data brokers currently routinely buy and sell personal location data from apps on our cellphones, revealing much about us without our knowledge. I’d like to highlight instances of particular alarm that would be addressed by The Location Shield Act.
It has been thoroughly reported that, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision destructively overturning Roe v. Wade, these data brokers have continued to traffic in data pertaining to sensitive locations, including abortion clinics and other medical facilities. Frankly, this is such a deeply profound violation of privacy that it shocks the conscience that it has ever been legal. This harvesting of such private information puts those who both seek and provide healthcare at risk of harassment, prosecution, and violence. […]
Imagine a white supremacist group buying the location data for those who enter a synagogue, a mosque, a predominantly Black church, or any other place of worship that serves a community that could be targeted by those who are looking to target violent acts. Failure to address this via The Location Shield Act, when we have the means to protect people, is irresponsible and could lead to tragedy.
Of course, this is at a time when hate crimes are on the rise, targeting Black, Hispanic, LGBTQ+, Muslim, and Jewish individuals, according to the FBI, demonstrating why The Location Shield Act is such profoundly urgent legislation.