How period tracking apps threaten digital privacy rights

LONDON - When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned women's constitutional right to abortion, a battle was launched over who has access to reproductive data and how it is used.

Debate has intensified over how reproduction-related data is collected, if law enforcement can access it and how big tech and businesses should handle it in the U.S. and abroad.

Data from period apps can be taken, analysed or sold to third parties, which threatens users' reproductive choices and digital privacy, according to a June report by the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy at the University of Cambridge.

What are menstruation tracking apps?

Women can track their menstruation and fertility cycles by inputting ovulation, diet, health and other sensitive data into period tracking apps like Flo Health and Clue.

Some apps offer information on menstruation, pregnancy, menopause and other sexual health topics which developers say can help address knowledge gaps.

Business is booming.

The so-called femtech industry - digital products for women's well-being - is expected to hit $60 billion by 2027, with period tracking apps making up half of the market, according to the Minderoo Centre.

Why are some of these apps problematic?

The business model behind menstrual tracking apps rests on commercial use, selling user data and insights to third parties, Minderoo Centre researchers said.

"There are real and frightening privacy and safety risks to women as a result of the commodification of the data collected by cycle tracking app companies," said Stefanie Felsberger, lead author of the report, in a statement.

Health apps routinely share sensitive consumer data with third parties such as social media, data brokers and advertisers, according to a 2019 study in the British Medical Journal.

London-based Flo Health, one of the most downloaded period tracking apps with more than 420 million users, has been caught up in an class action lawsuit since 2021, accused of sharing users' sensitive health information with third parties without informed consent.

In Asia, many countries lack stringent data protection laws, such as India, where fertility app Maya was reported by digital rights group Privacy International in 2019 to have shared users' reproductive health data with Facebook for targeted advertising.

The app, which then had about 7 million downloads, said it had not shared any "personally identifiable data or medical data."

Minderoo Centre researchers said data generated by women who are trying to get pregnant has huge commercial value due to their lifestyle and consumer behaviour shifts, such as home purchases.

Period trackers can also be used to target women depending on where they are in their menstrual cycle, such as increasing cosmetic product advertisements during ovulation, the report said.

How can authorities use online menstrual data?

U.S. law enforcement has used information gathered online, including the contents of Facebook messages and a Google search history, to bring abortion-related charges against women.

In one case, a woman was charged with helping her teenage daughter abort a pregnancy by providing her with pills and instructions after Facebook messages were turned over to police.

More than 20 Republican-led states have banned or limited abortion in the three years since the Supreme Court scrapped the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that had made abortion legal nationwide.

In Britain, police can check search history and fertility trackers on digital devices after an unexpected pregnancy loss, according to new police guidance published in December 2024.

"Internet search history ... and health apps such as menstrual cycle and fertility trackers may all provide information to help investigators establish a woman's knowledge and intention in relation to the pregnancy," the guidance said.

While abortions are legal in England and Wales up to 24 weeks, and beyond if the woman's life is in danger, women could face criminal charges for ending a pregnancy after 24 weeks under a law dating back to the mid-19th century.

Britain's parliament voted this week to decriminalise abortion to stop a growing number of women from being investigated under the Victorian-era law, which carries a potential sentence of life imprisonment.

What can be done to improve digital privacy?

Besides deleting apps or taking legal action, there are initiatives that users as well as policymakers, governments and developers can push for, according to the Minderoo Centre.

The Minderoo Centre report suggested there be less reliance on private apps and more scientific research on topics like menstruation and women's health.

The report also suggested that publicly funded health organisations like Britain's National Health Service develop their own period tracking apps that would not be commercially motivated.

Companies should also be more transparent about how data is used, and policymakers should try to enforce tighter regulation relating to data privacy, it said.

(Reporting by Lin Taylor, Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst.)