How To Protect your Digital Safety Today

Written By Martha Dimitratou

As many U.S. states and countries around the world increasingly restrict abortion access, the urgency to ensure safe and open access to reproductive healthcare and abortion information online has never been greater.

Download our guide on protecting your privacy while navigating reproductive healthcare and abortion access online here.

  • Some messaging apps collect and store a lot of information from your private messages. If you’re messaging about sensitive topics like reproductive healthcare, be careful about how and with whom you’re sharing your information. That’s why we recommend using messaging apps with end-to-end encryption instead of regular text messages or social media apps. End-to-end encryption means your message is scrambled while it is being sent so no one else can read it.

    We recommend downloading and using the encrypted messaging application, Signal. Signal is an independent nonprofit, and the application is completely free to use.

    Signal is available for all platforms. To download, visit: signal.org. 

  • The Tor Browser   allows people to surf the internet anonymously, helping you avoid surveillance and censorship. Tor Browser works similarly to browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and Safari, but it does not reveal who you are or what websites you visit to anyone monitoring your internet traffic.

    It achieves this by routing your internet activity through three random servers and encrypting (scrambling) it multiple times. 

    The safest and easiest way to download Tor Browser is from the official Tor Project website. For Windows, Mac, Linux, or Android, visit: torproject.org/download

  • When you connect to the internet, websites and applications can identify you through details like your device type, your IP address (which reveals your location), and more. Your internet provider can also see all the websites or apps you visit, and they may even block access to certain ones.


    To protect yourself, we recommend using a Virtual Private Network (VPN), which hides your online activity by routing your connection through a server operated by the VPN provider, making it much harder for bad actors or government agencies to censor or monitor what you do online.

    Please note that some of these options may require a subscription:

  • We carry our phones everywhere, which means our exact location is constantly tracked – either through the SIM card connecting to nearby cell towers, or through apps that record our location to deliver targeted ads. This location data can be accessed through police search warrants, which can be dangerous when we need to maintain privacy- especially for abortion access.

    We therefore recommend turning off location permissions for apps, putting your phone on airplane mode, temporarily removing your SIM card when heading to sensitive locations like abortion clinics and generally leaving your phone at home, if you are particularly concerned about criminalization.

  • Google Maps can still track and store your location whether you’re using an Android, iPhone, or computer. To disable this, open the Google Maps app, tap your profile picture or initial, then go to Your Timeline, tap three dots menu (for iPhones, it's horizontal and for Androids it's vertical), tap Location & privacy settings, and make sure Location and Timeline are off. You can also permanently delete your Timeline data in these settings.


    *from December 2024

Take action and get support

For general digital security support, you can contact:

Repro Legal Helpline in the US: www.reprolegalhelpline.org

Access Now’s helpline:  www.accessnow.org/help/ 

Share accurate digital safety information with your community! Get trained by Tor and receive  technical support related to Tor, by reaching out Tor Project:

Report an Incident with Repro Uncensored 

If you or your organization have experienced suppression of content related to reproductive health and rights and/or abortion access, please report an incident: reprouncensored.org/report-incident 

Martha Dimitratou
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