Period trackers 'coercing' women into sharing risky information

A recent study has raised concerns about the way female health monitoring apps handle sensitive data. The study, which evaluated the privacy policies and data safety labels of 20 popular apps used by women to track their menstrual cycles and aid conception, revealed several poor data management practices. One of the key findings was the lack of a delete function for highly personal information stored in these apps. Dr. Ruba Abu-Salma, the lead author of the study from King's College London, emphasized the significance of these apps for women's health while also highlighting the privacy and safety issues they pose. The study, conducted jointly by King's College London and University College London, focused on apps downloaded from Google Play stores in the US and UK. The researchers expressed concerns about the potential misuse of reproductive health data, particularly in the context of recent legal changes in the US regarding abortion rights. They found that intimate data stored by these apps, including details of sexual activity, contraception, and menstrual cycles, could be accessed by law enforcement or security authorities. The study also revealed discrepancies in the claims made by many apps about data sharing and privacy practices in their policies. The authors stressed the need for app developers to recognize the unique sensitivity of this data and adopt better privacy and safety practices to protect users.