Women face “frightening privacy and safety risks” when using period tracker apps, experts have warned.
The personal information collected in these apps – including exercise, diet, medication, sexual preferences, hormone levels and contraception use – could be “sold at scale” to pose “risks and harms for users”, academics from the University of Cambridge said.
A report from experts at the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy stated that menstrual data can offer insights into women’s health and their reproductive choices, making the apps that collect them a “gold mine” for consumer profiling.
“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,” Dr Stefanie Felsberger, lead author of the report said.
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The researchers said many women download the apps when they are trying to get pregnant, which leads to a shift in shopping behaviour.
“Data on who is pregnant, and who wants to be, has therefore emerged as some of the most sought-after information in digital advertising,” they said.
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The report stated that cycle tracking apps (CTA) “are a lucrative business because they provide the companies behind the apps with access to extremely valuable and fine-grained user data”.
“CTA data is not only commercially valuable and shared with an inextricable net of third parties (thereby making intimate user information exploitable for targeted advertising), but it also poses severe security risks for users,” the authors wrote.
The experts point out that the collected data could result in health insurance “discrimination”, risks to job prospects or even domestic abuse if it lands in the wrong hands.
They called for better governance of the “femtech” industry, including improved data security and “meaningful consent options” in these apps and urged public health bodies to launch alternatives to commercial period tracking apps.
Period tracking apps have gained popularity worldwide, with 250 million global downloads of the three most popular apps.
