Facebook gave police their private data. Now, this duo face abortion charges

Court documents filed in June and made public on Tuesday show how tech companies including Facebook contribute to criminal prosecutions of abortion cases. Experts say it also shows the importance of encryption and minimizing the amount of data Facebook stores on its users.

Brad Ewalt, an attorney for Burgess declined to comment. Emails seeking comment were left for a lawyer listed as a representative for her daughter on Tuesday afternoon.

Burgess was charged with two additional felonies after Madison county authorities served the search warrant, according to the Lincoln Journal Star. Documents show Burgess is charged with hiding a dead human body, performing an abortion as a non-licensed doctor and performing an abortion at more than 20 weeks. The latter two are considered felonies in Nebraska.

There is some precedent for tech companies fighting warrants in court, said Logan Koepke, a project director at Upturn, a non-profit that pushes for policy change that advances equity and justice in the use of technology.

The bottom line, though, Koepke and others maintain, is tech companies should limit the user data they collect and store.