Google under scrutiny over pledge to protect abortion location data

Researchers find movements can still be tracked despite firm's vow to protect location history of people who visit abortion clinics

Google's promise to protect the location history of users who visit abortion clinics is coming under scrutiny after researchers found that a user who had brief access to another user's Android phone - such as a boyfriend logging into his girlfriend's phone - could relatively easily monitor the user's movements.

The finding by Tech Transparency Project, a research arm of the non-profit Campaign for Accountability, comes weeks after Google announced in a blogpost that it would delete entries to sensitive locations - such as abortion clinics or domestic violence shelters - if its systems identified that someone has visited one of these places. The 1 July blogpost said the change would take effect in the coming weeks".