Digital resources can be a lifeline for trans people and a source of surveillance.

From American public media, this is Marketplace Tech.

I'm Megan McCarty Carino.

In recent years, we've seen a surge of state laws and policies affecting trans people.

Half of states have banned or restricted gender-affirming medical care for minors, with some adding restrictions for adults.

The ACLU is tracking more than 500 bills that have been introduced across the country, and

the enforcement of such laws, as with recent state bans on abortion and related reproductive care,

have raised concerns about tracking people's digital footprints.

So much of daily life is conducted online and there are currently no federal

data privacy protections. K.B. Brookings wrote about a personal experience that drove home concerns about their trail of digital data.

They're a writer based in Austin, Texas.

My full name is K.B. Brookings.

My pronouns are they them. I wrote a piece titled,

Transsexins are being surveilled. This is everyone's issue and in that piece

I kind of detail what it's like to change your name in gender marker in Texas.

First I had to get from a doctor a letter saying that I had a gender identity disorder.

I had to sign a form kind of saying like proof of indigencies so I didn't have to pay the fee and then I also had to fill out a number of

forms to kind of like request this from the state so it's kind of given to you as a

request and saying like I requested this be changed

that request can be denied. Oftentimes if you're in some kind of county in Texas

that is more conservative, doesn't have a judge that believes in that kind of thing that can just deny it.

The judge then takes, I think my judge maybe took like six weeks to approve mine and then I went through the process of changing it on things like

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