A Cambridge University report highlights all the ways menstrual tracking data can be misused.
The report warns of numerous risks from data exploitation, including targeted advertising around pregnancy, health insurance discrimination, policing of abortion access, and data misuse to undermine court testimony.
The authors say users underestimate the risks that come with sharing highly intimate medical data with profit-driven companies. They recommend education about these risks, more period health research to reduce reliance on apps, and better regulation and transparency.
The Science Media Centre asked experts to comment.
Associate Professor Bryndl Hohmann-Marriott, Co-Director of the Menstrual Health Research Network, Head of the Sociology, Gender Studies and Criminology Programme, University of Otago, comments:
“The High Stakes of Tracking Menstruation by Dr Stefanie Felberger of the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy is a timely and necessary wake-up call alerting us all to the misuse of our vital health data.
“Menstrual-cycle tracking apps offer potential for being helpful and are used by hundreds of millions around the world. However, app users may not be making a genuine informed choice in a policy environment that does not sufficiently protect privacy.
“Menstrual cycle and reproductive justice matters to us all. This report offers a concise overview of the key concerns for individual app users. Regardless of apps’ accuracy (or lack thereof), apps are no substitute for limited healthcare and research in this essential area. Widening the focus to structural issues offers particularly useful insights. This new report highlights ways that cycle data is mined and combined with the aim of influencing and policing us.
“I can confirm from my own research that Aotearoa New Zealand app users may not fully appreciate how powerful their period data is:
“Cycle tracking apps propose an individual solution to societal problems such as a lack of healthcare services and research gaps in menstrual and reproductive health. Their usefulness in some ways rests on the continuation of these structural problems faced by people with periods. In moving forwards it is crucial to remember that changing individual tracking habits will not make users of cycle tracking apps safer, even if they use a secure app. It also will do nothing to alter the urgent need users have for tracking apps, or make menstrual tracking data more accessible for medical research.” (p. 33)
Conflict of interest statement: “I have no conflicts of interest.”
Anna Friedlander, PhD candidate at the University of Waikato, comments:
“In our just-published research we asked New Zealand period tracking app users what they thought about the data risks of these apps. About half of the users we spoke to didn’t think their period data was risky. Some of these users imagined mostly positive uses for their data, like improving apps or contributing to women’s health research. Others did perceive possible risks and sometimes engaged in risk minimisation strategies. This group was often largely resigned to their data being used by period tracking apps in ways that they didn’t want or didn’t know about.
“Some app users in our study contextualised their understanding of period tracking app data risk with respect to reproductive rights – risks that are highlighted in the Cambridge study released today.
“The range of ways in which participants in our study perceived risk shows how difficult it can be to understand and mitigate risk at an individual level. It shows how important it is to have strong protections for our intimate health data.
“That some participants in our study contextualised risk with respect to overseas changes like the overturning of Roe v Wade illustrates that we are living in a globally connected world. On the other hand, the fact that some participants referenced local legislation and concepts like mana motuhake and rangatiratanga shows that it is vital that our data protection regulation is locally relevant to menstruators in Aotearoa.”
Conflict of interest statement: Anna Friedlander is lead author of a separate paper about Kiwis’ views on period tracker privacy risks.
Professor Holly Thorpe, Associate Dean Research, University of Waikato, comments:
“Health App users around the world are increasingly asking critical questions about who owns and stores their health data, and what that data could be used for. There is a growing body of research focused on those using Menstruation Tracking Apps (MTAs) for reproductive health, particularly as governments are shifting policies about sex, gender and reproductive health.
“The new study out of Cambridge aligns with some of our just-published findings, focussed on New Zealand women.”
Conflict of interest statement: Holly Thorpe is a co-author of a separate paper about Kiwis’ views on period tracker privacy risks.