We want Texans to know their rights

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/07/we-want-texans-know-their-rights-qa-mayday-health-impact-surveillance-abortion

by amarcheschi • 3 days ago

216 47 3 days ago

pton_xd• 3 days ago

"Last May, EFF reported that a sheriff’s office in Texas searched data from more than 83,000 automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras to track down a woman suspected of self-managing an abortion."

These people really have nothing better to do?

jkahrs595• 3 days ago

They literally think they are doing the work of some divine creator. They have plenty of time to ruin the lives of other people because they think it saves their own.

estearum2• 2 days ago

Really insightful comment. Couldn't agree more.

And many of these people really do need their Good Works on the force to do the saving, because God knows what they do to their wives and kids back home.

SAI_Peregrinus• 1 day ago

They also believe in eternal torture as punishment. If someone doesn't accept their god, their god will send that person's soul to hell to be tortured forever. Therefore, essentially anything can be justified to force people to accept their god, since no finite amount of harm can exceed the infinite torture of hell.

People who believe that sort of thing are, IMO, extremely evil, and worshiping an evil deity.

monksy• 3 days ago

I've got distant family members in law enforcement. They brag about the reach of their equipment to surveil. Yes, they enjoy being overly suspicious.

estearum2• 3 days ago

Suspicious? The word is abusive. Of the law, of their uniform, of their fellow citizens.

nine_k2• 3 days ago

They have a law to enforce. The law enforcement activity is as good as the law :(

JoshTriplett3• 3 days ago

"I was just enforcing the law" is no better than "I was just following orders".

BigTTYGothGF• 3 days ago

Every minute spent tracking down a lady getting an abortion is a minute not spent tracking down a murderer or a rapist or similar.

8note• 3 days ago

within the US context, the government isnt allowed to just have any law it wants, and it isnt allowed yo enforce laws that breach individual rights

godwinson__4-8• 3 days ago

There is no rest for the wicked.

cucumber3732842• 3 days ago

These people really have nothing better to do?

Making examples out of some number of unlucky peasants over otherwise trivial deviance that harms nearly nobody is one of the key jobs of men at arms.

Now, they may spend more time on "real crime" or collecting taxes by other names, but make no mistake this sort of stuff is stuff they (as an agency) must do if they are to properly serve the interests of their master.

dodger-dog3• 3 days ago

Seems like sheriff was searching for missing person. Was concern about her welfare and mental health, thus the use of the cameras. You can buy Mifepristone at CVS, Target, Walgreen's and the like. I don't think they were trying to track which CVS she was going to.

The article is misleading, but that should never get in the way of righteous rage that helps a person form identity and purpose in an otherwise existential and empty vacuum of meaning.

fhdkweig• 3 days ago

The above article is https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/07/we-want-texans-know-th... .

That article links to https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/05/she-got-abortion-so-te... which links to https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/10/flock-safety-and-texas...

The second article states what you are saying, but the third article says that the information given in the second article was a lie.

paytonjjones• 3 days ago

from more than 83,000 automated license plate reader

This feels purposefully misleading. Did they manually watch hours and hours of footage, or is this the equivalent of "I searched an online corpus of hundreds of millions of documents" (I Googled it)

cosmicgadget• 3 days ago

Doesn't feel misleading at all, "searched data from" is pretty much your "I Googled it" without branding.

The inclusion of 83,000 seems more intended to quantify the scope of the surveillance accessible to these sheriffs.

morkalork• 3 days ago

Sure, call it that. They Googled it on their comperensive, nation-wide, unlimited access, fully indexed and integrated surveillance network (with 83,000 edge nodes)

Trasmatta• 3 days ago

It's no longer safe to even use a period tracking app in many US states now. The women I know are all cautioning each other to go back to pen and paper, and ditch anything app based.

jmclnx• 3 days ago

Most of us here knows ways around this, but many people are not educated.

One method is get off your smart phone and boot tails and do the searches there. Maybe that is something EFF can make known. Like list trusted onion sites that have information where women can go and get help.

dodger-dog3• 3 days ago

You boot tails to track your period?

jonhohle• 3 days ago

Apple offers this in Health and it stays on device or encrypted in backups. I’m not sure why anyone would want this in the cloud.

Cider9986• 3 days ago

Correct and you shouldn't use any health apps that don't take your privacy seriously.

Here are privacy respecting ones: https://www.privacyguides.org/en/health-and-wellness/#menstr...

throwawalien• 3 days ago

wild that it took abortion for people to notice. the same cameras have been feeding ICE lookups across 5,000+ towns, quietly, for the last couple years

t-writescode• 3 days ago

Education is often best achieved through spaced repetition and cross-discipline integration, especially with the intent of connecting something with someone’s personal life to sink it deeper.

A single news article ever, or 1000 news articles that don’t impact “you specifically” are less effective than measured repetition across multiple fronts.

belviewreview• 3 days ago

One reason the government surveillance is important is I've read there is a growing movement among the right-to-lifers to hold women who abort criminally liable.

stackghost2• 3 days ago

If rights can be capriciously and arbitrarily curtailed by armed agents of the state while effete judges yeet sternly-worded letters into the void, then those "rights" are worth about as much as the USA's signature on an international treaty. Which is to say, nothing.

Joker_vD6• 3 days ago

I don't know if you've ever read any Bill/Declaration of Rights, but they all have "this right shall not be violated unless the law allows it" provisions. Many of them even have "oh, and requiring state licensing to exercise such right is not violating it" provisions (see e.g. "This Article shall not prevent States from requiring the licensing of broadcasting, television or cinema enterprises" in Article 10 of ECHR).

IAmBroom• 11 hours ago

Nonsense. No such provision appears anywhere in the US Bill of Rights.

impish9208• 2 days ago

…while effete judges yeet sternly-worded letters into the void…

You, sir, have a way with words.

stackghost2• 2 days ago

In going to choose to take this as a compliment :)

belZaah• 3 days ago

We had a lady down here in Estonia working for police. She used their extensive databases for non-work related reasons and got, very publicly, fired. She decided to appeal and lost. Through all levels of court up to the EU one. So for years, there would be a newspaper headline “remember that person who invaded your privacy? Still guilty”. Could not wish for a more impactful public execution.

hnburnsy• 2 days ago

We want Texans to know their rights

Unless they are on X.

We want Texans to know their rights

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