LANSING — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Wednesday sent a letter to the leaders of Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft, five of the world’s biggest tech companies that manage nearly every American’s data.

She called on them to take additional steps to protect people’s data, especially health data, as extremists try to weaponize it to go after women seeking reproductive health care and prosecute nurses and doctors for doing their jobs.

Whitmer also called on the companies to be more transparent about what data they are providing and to whom. This letter follows reports of law enforcement in other states using Facebook data to go after women seeking abortion care.

“Every Michigander deserves privacy and control over their data, which includes so much personal information about our health, habits, and lives,” Whitmer said in a statement. “We know the risks of someone getting access to our data. If it fell into the wrong hands, our digital footprint could tell someone where we are, who we were with, what we bought– even intimate details about our health. Without adequate protections, that data could be used to go after women seeking reproductive health care or to prosecute nurses and doctors for doing their jobs.

“Amid an ongoing assault on women’s bodily autonomy by extremists who do not hesitate to use location and health data to target Michiganders, we must do more to protect everyone’s fundamental right to privacy.”

Whitmer also said, “As custodians of our most sensitive data, Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft have a responsibility to protect their customers and their privacy, I am grateful for the steps you have already taken — to varying degrees –to enhance digital privacy, but your work to protect our data must be an ongoing effort. Trust — in government and the private sector — is a precious resource, and firms that value privacy will benefit their shareholders by fostering a transparent relationship that prioritizes the needs of their users.”