Journalists covering reproductive rights are tackling a challenging — but critical — beat with fast-evolving digital security risks. No matter from which direction one approaches the topic, there’s a duty of care to sources with these elevated security needs. Learning how to minimize risks for both sources and oneself requires identifying digital security considerations, knowing when to communicate them and how to keep reporting materials safe. With the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, sources seeking or providing abortions do so in a country where it is illegal or under threat in at least half the states. Given the uncertainty, risk assessment varies widely based on whether someone is personally seeking an abortion, assisting someone else in doing so and the laws of their state. Electronic surveillance makes this threat to sources even more acute. Threats to press freedom around the world are at an all-time high. Sign up to stay up to date and take action to protect journalists and whistleblowers everywhere. Thanks for signing up for our newsletter. You are not yet subscribed! Please check your email for a message asking you to confirm your subscription. Following the ruling, Google announced it would delete abortion clinic visits and other “sensitive locations” from the location history of its users. A user is still responsible for deleting one’s own search history, and this is certainly not the only type of data at issue. When reporters exchange a phone call with a source the phone company has a record of that call, possibly tying the two together. Device data, like calls to a reproductive health provider, online search history and other kinds of data provide hints of abortion-related activities. Understanding what digital security precautions, if any, someone has taken before reaching out to a media organization is a starting point for a journalist to understand possible risks to sources. While no one wants to scare off a source, it’s important to be honest about risk and, when appropriate, how to minimize it. Most journalists are already at least somewhat familiar with operational security, or the idea of keeping critical information from getting into the wrong hands. Because abortion activists and seekers might be reasonably cautious about where they are willing to physically meet a journalist, consider places where people are able to speak with plausible deniability. Jessica Bruder’s reporting on abortion activists is instructive here. As part of her reporting, Bruder met at a public beach for a source who didn’t want to risk revealing where they lived or their name, citing concerns around harassment or violence from anti-choice extremists. Given the fast-changing nature of abortion rights reporting, journalists should also carefully consider what they really need to ask about and collect in order to tell the story. Think about what context is enough to tell this particular story while causing minimal headaches for a source. If you provide additional color about the source in an article, how likely is it to be tied to them? Anecdotes and characteristics that can be tied to many people are safer than the more specific ones. Journalists should ensure sources understand what information or background will be published about them. Media formats matter. Redacting and publishing a single photo is much simpler than redacting a video. If a file or piece of media needs to be published to help tell a story, consider what level of detail is necessary to tell the story. It’s equally important to keep perspective on these threats. Kendra Albert, Maggie Delano and Emma Weil write on the topic of period tracking apps that people are a bigger risk than large-scale data collection of reproductive health-related data. Citing the work of Kate Bertash, director of the Digital Defense Fund, the authors wrote that criminal prosecution has often been when a third party called the police on alleged or suspected abortions. “Usually, it is hospital staff or other individuals (including friends, partners, and relatives!) who know or are suspicious that someone has miscarried for “illegal” reasons.” With that said, technology makes it possible for strangers to threaten the livelihoods of at-risk individuals as well. Journalists can help minimize the risk of sources being harassed or doxxed — when someone gathers and publicly shares information on a target. This might include information such as someone’s phone number, home address, old photos or information about their families. Typically trolls will use these dossiers to issue threats and harassment through electronic communications, but sometimes they also become more physical.