Seeking an abortion? Here's how to avoid leaving a digital trail. PASS ON. SHARE WIDELY.

Everything you should do to keep your information safe, from incognito browsing to turning off location tracking


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Here are the basic steps anyone can take to protect personal information when weighing an abortion.

Limit who you tell
Your biggest risk factor is other people. Many cases against people who had abortions start with people they’ve told who report them to law enforcement, according to Farah Diaz-Tello, senior counsel and legal director for If/When/How, a reproductive justice nonprofit.

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Chat on a secure, encrypted messaging app
When you do discuss your situation, use private messaging apps that use encryption. Apple’s iMessage, Meta’s WhatsApp and Signal are all end-to-end encrypted by default, which means messages are obscured from everyone except the sender and receiver.

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Protect your devices
Keep in mind that someone with access to your physical device could view your messages, whether or not they’re encrypted. Don’t turn your phone or laptop over to law enforcement without a warrant, privacy experts advise, and turn off biometric authentication such as Face or Touch ID if you’re worried about someone pressuring or forcing you to unlock them. Make sure your phone, tablet and computers all require a passcode or password to use them. Avoid wearing any health-tracking wearables while managing your health.

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Browse the internet securely
There are two ways your browsing activity could put you at risk: someone seeing it on your device, and someone obtaining it from tech or ad-tech companies, said Eric Rescorla, chief technology officer at Firefox.

Always use incognito or private browsing mode on your browser to avoid leaving a trail on your own devices. When choosing a browser, go with Safari, Firefox or Brave, which all have robust privacy features. Make sure any options to prevent cross-site tracking are turned on, and instead of Google, use a search engine such as DuckDuckGo or Brave.

To minimize what is recorded about your browsing, use a VPN or Apple’s iCloud Private Relay, which acts like a more secure VPN. Avoid using third-party apps for searches. If you want an extra layer of protection, use Tor Browser, a tool for anonymous internet use that cloaks both your identity and your location, Rescorla said.