A settlement with a digital advertising company bars the firm from using a technology called geofencing to direct anti-abortion messages toward women entering reproductive health facilities in Massachusetts, the state attorney general said Tuesday.
The agreement was reached after Attorney General Maura Healey investigated whether Copley Advertising or John Flynn, a Brookline man identified as the firm's manager and sole employee, was violating the state's consumer protection laws. Copley denied any wrongdoing.
Geofencing allows ads to be directed to the mobile devices of certain people when they enter a designated location. The technology also allows those devices to be tagged so the messages can continue to be sent to the user through apps or web browsers for up to 30 days after they leave the location.
Consumers often don't realize when they install an app that they are allowing it to disclose information about their location that can then be used by advertisers.
According to the settlement, Copley contracted in 2015 with Bethany Christian Services, a pregnancy counseling and adoption agency, and RealOptions, a network of crisis pregnancy services, to send targeted ads to the mobile devices of "abortion-minded women" entering reproductive health facilities and methadone clinics in New York City; Pittsburgh; St. Louis; Richmond, Virginia; and Columbus, Ohio. The ads would include links to services that encourage alternatives to abortion.
"While geofencing can have positive benefits for consumers, it is also a technology that has the potential to digitally harass people and interfere with health privacy," said Healey, a Democrat. "Consumers are entitled to privacy in their medical decisions and conditions."
The agreement, officially known as an assurance of discontinuance, applies only to Massachusetts and covers consumers entering or leaving any kind of health care facility, not just those providing abortion services.
Flynn said that he hadn't provided geofencing services at any women's health clinics in Massachusetts but that he had the ability to tag all mobile devices entering or leaving all Planned Parenthood Clinics in the U.S.
In a statement, Flynn said the company was singled out by Healey's office for a challenge to what he considered free speech.
"Although we have not violated any laws, we made an agreement with the AG's office so we can devote our time and resources to working for our clients," Flynn said. "Their right to free speech should not be marginalized because government officials do not agree with the message of their advertisement."
The attorney general's office said it was not aware of any similar legal actions brought in other states.
Harvey Weinstein hit with new sex crime charge in New York
Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a new sex crime charge in New York, as he awaits retrial in his landmark #MeToo case.
Details of the new allegations were not immediately available. He was charged with committing a criminal sex act.
The jailed ex-movie mogul has long maintained that any sexual activity was consensual.
Prosecutors revealed last week that Weinstein had been indicted on additional sex crime charges that weren't part of the case that led to his now-overturned 2020 conviction. But the new indictment was sealed until his arraignment.
Prosecutors have said that the grand jury heard evidence of up to three alleged assaults — two in hotels in the Tribeca neighborhood and one at a lower Manhattan residential building. The purported incidents took place from the mid-2000s to 2016, prosecutors said.
But it's not clear whether any of those allegations underlie the new indictment.
While bracing for the new charges, Weinstein also is awaiting retrial after New York state's highest court this spring overturned his 2020 conviction on rape and sexual assault charges involving two women. The high court, called the Court of Appeals, ordered a new trial, which is tentatively scheduled to begin Nov. 12.
The Court of Appeals ruled that the then-trial judge unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations that were not part of the case. That judge's term expired in 2022, and he is no longer on the bench.
Prosecutors have said they'll seek to fold the new charges into the retrial, but Weinstein's lawyers say it should be a separate case.
Weinstein, who also was convicted in 2022 in a Los Angeles rape case, remains behind bars while awaiting his New York retrial.
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