New initiative from Cook County Clerk to help protect women’s privacy

CHICAGO — On Tuesday, the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County announced a new initiative to help protect women’s privacy.

Clerk Iris Martinez unveiled a new plan to protect women within the walls of the court system.

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“The right to privacy initiative will lead the nation in safeguarding women’s rights by sealing court records the contain women’s reproductive health information.

Right now, when private matters, including abortion and IVF are mentioned in a hearing, that data may end up being part of public record.

“This information should not be available to someone with spare change and access to a printer,” Katie Dunn said.

The initiative, through the use of technology, which students at Northwestern University helped developed, would automatically seal files if they contain specific words.

“There’s AI that picks up certain words,” Carmen Navarro Gercone, director of operations, said. “If they see the word pregnancy or abortion, they’ll capture that then work to automatically seal that document.”

Records can currently be sealed if requested.

Former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was one of those who gathered at the Daley Center for the announcement.

“Records can be auto-sealed,” Lightfoot said. “People don’t have to come in and ask for it to be sealed. That’s the idea.”

The clerk said the new technology will be used to redact and seal more than 100 million cases in Cook County following the digitization of millions of files over the last three years.

The result, Martinez said, ultimately will protect women here and potentially further afield.

“Together we can protect women in Cook County and develop a plan that can be replicated across the country,” Martinez said.

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