“It’s Always in the Back of My Mind”: Navigating sensitive health data amid reduced abortion rights in the United States

The HCI community has advanced the capabilities and availability of technology to support people's understanding of their health and to connect with others for health support. Weaponization of sensitive health data, however, necessitates greater emphasis on how this information might be used to create harm and how people navigate the associated risks. We examine how people in the United States altered their period-tracking and other technology use after the 2022 overturn of Roe v. Wade. Through interviews with 22 participants from nine states, we found that most did not significantly change their period tracking despite privacy concerns—a pattern we explain through participants’ complex risk calculus, in which abstract legal threats competed with concrete benefits, switching costs, and the paradoxical role of tracking as both risk and protection against unwanted pregnancy. Uncertainty about legal implications and inaccessible privacy policies further complicated decision-making. While tracking practices remained largely unchanged, the overturn affected how participants made decisions regarding data privacy across technologies and spurred broader life changes. Many learned about the implications of the overrule from news articles and social media, highlighting the importance of journalism and timely, accurate, and comprehensive science communication.