In the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, many employees are seeking discreet access to reproductive care, often turning to employers for help. But if those conversations take place on workplace chat platforms, they could end up being used against employees in a court of law.
Earlier this year, as an increasing number of states cut access to reproductive care or even criminalized it, nonprofit advocacy group Fight for the Future published an open letter to Slack, calling on the workplace communication platform to implement end-to-end encryption. End-to-end encryption is a private communication system in which only users participating in the conversation can access its contents; the hope is that this would better protect abortion seekers who may be communicating with each other, colleagues or employers about company-provided resources and support.
