{"id":62959,"date":"2025-09-14T05:20:20","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T05:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/62959\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T05:20:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T05:20:20","slug":"menstruation-apps-what-happens-to-your-data-and-how-it-can-be-used-to-criminalize-abortion-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/62959\/","title":{"rendered":"Menstruation apps: What happens to your data and how it can be used to criminalize abortion | Health"},"content":{"rendered":"

What does the volatile global political environment<\/a> have to do with the menstruation of millions of people? With whom do menstrual cycle apps share our medical data? And how can this information be used to criminalize women who choose to have an abortion?<\/p>\n

More and more people are downloading menstrual tracking apps on their phones. Hence, these questions are becoming a major concern for researchers and academics. This is because the data stored in these apps is considered to be a \u201cgold mine\u201d for the market. Two recent investigations \u2013 one from the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy at the University of Cambridge and another from Privacy International, each using different methodologies \u2013 reach similar conclusions: there\u2019s a latent risk of this data ending up in the wrong hands, both in the private and public sectors. Governments can use this data<\/a> for law enforcement purposes, while companies can utilize it for commercial purposes.<\/p>\n

\u201cMenstrual tracking apps turn personal health information into data that\u2019s collected, analyzed and sold. This poses risks and harm to users and society, as menstrual tracking data can be used to monitor people\u2019s reproductive lives<\/a>,\u201d says Dr. Stefanie Felsberger, lead author of the Minderoo report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Femtech \u2013 the market for technology products focused on women\u2019s health and wellness \u2013 is a lucrative business, expected to reach $60 billion by 2027. Menstrual cycle apps contribute at least 50% of this growing market and present themselves as closing the gender health gap, according to the Minderoo report. The three most popular apps alone have 250 million downloads overall. <\/p>\n

These apps collect information about the user\u2019s menstrual period, symptoms, emotions, exercise, sexual preferences and contraceptive methods \u2013 among other data \u2013 and generate predictions about ovulation dates, PMS and their next cycle. However, according to medical studies, they fail to accurately predict these events.<\/p>\n

\"AA woman receives sanitary pads.Maskot (Getty Images\/Maskot)<\/p>\n

\u201cIf [cycle tracking] data falls into the wrong hands, it could cause harm that goes beyond reproductive health, such as intimate partner violence, risks to job prospects, workplace surveillance, or discrimination in health insurance,\u201d Felsberger adds.<\/p>\n

Commercial use of data<\/p>\n

This is where the inextricable web of third parties with access to this data becomes important. Privacy International\u2019s study \u2013 titled No Body\u2019s Business but Mine: Vol 2<\/a> \u2013 focuses on whether, given the ongoing threats to sexual and reproductive rights worldwide, menstrual tracking apps are truly safe for those who use them. It also looks at how responsible these firms are with their privacy policies.<\/p>\n

Concerns about data privacy<\/a> have been around for some time, but have evolved over the years. In 2019, Privacy International conducted the first investigation into 10 apps, focusing on whether they shared data with Facebook. Now, taking into account changes in the political landscape, as well as technological transformations, such as the expansion of cloud-based services and artificial intelligence, they conducted another technical study with new questions.<\/p>\n

This time, for a period of five years, they focused on Google\u2019s most-downloaded apps and followed the invisible network of private third parties that show up in the process. And, while they found that, \u201coverall, period tracking apps were not sharing users\u2019 cycle data as egregiously with third parties as we found for some apps in 2019,\u201d new privacy risks emerged. \u201cwe did observe several categories of third parties that many apps were integrating for different purposes, such as advertising software development kits (SDKs) or application programming interfaces (APIs) to service certain app functionalities, and these third parties often processed some degree of the user\u2019s personal or device data,\u201d the study says.<\/p>\n

\"AA young woman looks at a menstruation app.SolStock (Getty Images)Fear of reproductive surveillance<\/p>\n

In this regard, the researchers agree with the Cambridge findings. The biggest concern has to do with how this data could be used for reproductive surveillance. \u201cOff-device storage introduces an additional risk: the possibility that such data could be seized and used against individuals (and without their knowledge), particularly in jurisdictions where reproductive care is criminalized or restricted,\u201d an essay by Privacy International notes. <\/p>\n

This concern extends to several Latin American jurisdictions, where abortion is still criminalized. And, in the U.S., many of the concerns have been heightened since the reversal of Roe v. Wade, particularly in states that have introduced restrictions and prohibitions on access to abortion<\/a>. There\u2019s a fear that apps will share incriminating data about their users\u2019 sexual health (for example, weeks of missed menstruation) to comply with a police investigation, which could result in a violation of a woman\u2019s right to privacy and health.<\/p>\n

The warnings are supported by at least two cases. One in Nebraska \u2013 where a woman was convicted of terminating a pregnancy after prosecutors used Facebook messages in which she and her mother discussed purchasing an abortion drug \u2013 and another in the United Kingdom, where Carla Foster, a separated mother of three, was sentenced to 28 months in prison for accessing an abortion after the 24-week mark, which is the legal limit in Wales. The evidence against Foster included her online history, text messages and phone calls. Furthermore, as revealed by Tortoise Media, investigators also requested data related to period-tracking apps.<\/p>\n

In addition to the black holes in some apps, according to Sian Norris \u2013 author of the book Bodies Under Siege (2023) \u2013 anti-abortion groups have also launched their own period-tracking apps. \u201cFEMM Health is the brainchild of the World Youth Alliance, an anti-abortion organization financially backed by the Chiaroscuro Foundation. Chiaroscuro is primarily funded by Sean Fieler, a prominent donor to U.S. conservative organizations,\u201d she writes in The Dial. This means, she continues, that \u201cnearly half-a-million women are now sharing their sensitive reproductive health data with an anti-abortion organization.\u201d Norris explains that, under privacy guidelines, the company can share user data with the courts.<\/p>\n

In Latin America, there\u2019s also concern about data collection. In 2023, a team of researchers from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education \u2013 led by Paola Ricaurte Quijano \u2013 conducted a qualitative study titled My body is mine: menstrual apps and the sociotechnical normalization of gender. This qualitative study \u2013 which interviewed 32 people \u2013 found that, by design, apps reinforce binary conceptions and stereotypes of femininity. It concludes that there\u2019s an algorithmic bias that benefits those with regular cycles more, while noting that most users don\u2019t read privacy policies or consider data protection to be a requirement for installing the app. \u201cThey are simply in a passive position, because they do not see feasible solutions that they can carry out individually and practically to protect their personal data,\u201d the report states.<\/p>\n

However, given this situation, some users have begun to search for menstrual tracking apps that improve privacy. Others, meanwhile, have simply deleted these apps, for fear of the lack of data protection.<\/p>\n

Apps take a stand<\/p>\n

Not all is lost, however. According to Privacy International, some apps offer a notable feature from a privacy perspective: the option to store data locally on the user\u2019s device. This means that menstrual cycle information entered by the user remains on their device and isn\u2019t automatically transmitted to the developer, nor saved to the cloud. This approach can improve user privacy and control, as only the user (i.e., their device) processes and stores their data.<\/p>\n

\"SomeSome users have begun to search for menstrual tracking apps that improve privacy.Riska (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Furthermore, some apps \u2013 such as Flo and Period Tracker (GP Apps) \u2013 have publicly taken a stand against the criminalization of abortion and the excessive use of power by authorities in this post-Roe world. And new alternatives have emerged, such as an app called Euki. It was created by the Digital Defense Fund and Ibis Reproductive Health \u2013 two organizations centered on sexual health and social technology \u2013 and is the one that\u2019s the most esteemed among privacy advocates. It was designed with a privacy-by-default approach, can be used without creating an account and is open source.<\/p>\n

These privacy goals should be the norm, not the exception. The current regulatory landscape doesn\u2019t impose sufficient accountability on apps to adopt better privacy practices. To ensure that developers include robust privacy-by-default while designing their apps, there must be explicit regulatory standards and safeguards that make privacy attractive to developers. Additionally, the exceptions that allow for the sale and sharing of user data with third parties must be reconsidered and limited.<\/p>\n

Sign up for our weekly newsletter<\/a> to get more English-language news coverage from EL PA\u00cdS USA Edition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What does the volatile global political environment have to do with the menstruation of millions of people? With…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62960,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[8779,18,877,19,17,82,44560],"class_list":{"0":"post-62959","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-app-store","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-facebook","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-technology","14":"tag-universidad-cambridge"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}