British Pregnancy Advisory Service

Who should know that your teenager is interested in abortion?

When an under 18 visits Abortion support and care for unders 18s, BPAS shares identifiable data that the child is interested in BPAS with:

• Google (Translate also get user cookies, whilst Google APIs and Tag Manager can track by IP address)

If the child accepts the following

Then BPAS shares identifiable data with more:

• Bing
• Google Ads
• Google Doubleclick
• Google Analytics

Should the child decide they wish to visit a clinic, by clicking through to Find a clinic, then identifiable data (regardless of cookie consent) is shared with:

• Google Maps

Whatever BPAS use the ad and analytics integrations for, the Translate and Maps integrations would appear to be for user functionality.

Yet, in both cases, regarding Translate and Maps, the services get data even when there is no usage of them.

What is exactly sent?

Google Ads

Here is BPAS sharing data with Google that a child is interested in their under-18 services, the following is sent

This is sent with Google tracking cookie and if logged into Google, user account cookies too

https://www.google.com/pagead/landing?gcs=G111&gcd=11r1r1l1l5&rnd=529707676.1698345068&url=https://www.bpas.org/abortion-care/under-18>m=45He3an0n91TPZCNQW4v9165465611&auid=1332606195.1698345062

Bing

And here is a request to Bing that is sent with tracking cookies and if a user of Bing, user account cookies too

https://bat.bing.com/action/0?ti=5600576&tm=gtm002&Ver=2&mid=8862eb01-6310-407b-a2fc-00d528e11324&sid=2f828cb0742911ee9fd88df47110e02f&vid=9f0d29000cea11ee93fc09bd4447a3a1&vids=0&msclkid=N&pi=918639831&lg=en-GB&sw=3840&sh=2160&sc=24&tl=Abortion Support & Advice | for young people under 18 | BPAS&p=https://www.bpas.org/abortion-care/under-18&r=<=440&evt=pageLoad&sv=1&rn=543835

Google Doubleclick

Sent with Google's IDE cookie, that can be correlated to user account cookies if present and regardless used for targeting adverts to users

https://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/pagead/landing?gcs=G111&gcd=11r1r1l1l5&rnd=529707676.1698345068&url=https://www.bpas.org/abortion-care/under-18>m=45He3an0n91TPZCNQW4v9165465611&auid=1332606195.1698345062

Thoughts regarding sharing abortion data with US companies

These thoughts are not for anyone currently interested in abortion, go seek some great advice from your GP, BPAS and others, but maybe call them instead of using the BPAS website.

Our laws, don't agree with some US states on the legality of some circumstances for abortion.

Since, Roe v Wade was overruled in 2022, in some US states, I would guess a significant number of abortions in the UK would be criminal if performed there.

As an act, FGM is not comparable with abortion, but I fear the UK reaction to FGM is something to think about, as an example of how a state and its people may react to what they perceive to be a crime, when happening abroad.

So think for a moment...

Imagine people, including our nationals, perform acts in other countries, that if here we would consider a serious crime.

Imagine they are unpunished, with victims including our nationals or those who might travel here.

Would we...

• expect our border controls to bar their entry?
• expect the discovery in data held by our businesses to be disclosed to our authorities or protected as a disclosure to our press?
• ignore, nay support, those in our country who protest, harrass or even act as vigilantes against them?
• expect our authorities to warrant data on likely acts and attempt to prosecute them if there is a connection to our country?

How do we expect Americans to react to abortions in the UK that would be perceived as illegal if they happened in their state?

Regardless, why is BPAS sharing abortion interest data of children with advertising companies?

Raising the complaint

17th June 2023: Complaint raised with BPAS and the ICO explaining various tracking integrations.

No reply received.