One random evening while I was coming back from college, I looked at the pop-up notification on my phone that said, “Your periods may start in 5 days“. It was the Apple Health app reminding me of my upcoming periods. For the last year, I’ve been using a period tracking app to remind me of my menses and to keep a check on my menstrual health.
For about 50 million women around the world, these apps help keep track of their period cycles, fertility period, thereby helping them plan either conception or contraception. Some apps also provide a feature that keeps up with their PCOS and PCOD cycle, chemical imbalances, mood changes etc. But are we sure that the information that we are sharing with the app will remain private?
When we login to a period tracker app, it asks us for all sort of information, including our name, age, sexual identity, and intimate questions dealing with our sex life. Different apps also ask questions like how often you have sex if you are trying to have a baby, have experienced a miscarriage, and whether you engage in unprotected sex or are approaching menopause. With this sort of personal information in the hands of faceless corporations, are we sure that our privacy is not being breached?
Do Period Tracking Apps Share Our Personal Information?
Yes, a study conducted by Consumer Reports found that some of the most popular period tracker apps share their users’ health data with marketers for targeted advertising. Health researchers too benefit from this data without prior consent by the users.
Period apps like MIA Fem and Maya, both of which are the most popular amongst women, have shared their private information like when do they suffer cramps, have they used contraception in the past and so on with more extensive databases online.
The information is primarily shared with Facebook using its Software Development Kit (SDK). This enables app developers to include certain features and collect specific data. The data will often be passed through SDK to Facebook where it can be used to garner a target audience or for something besides social media, who knows.
What Happens When You Share Your Data With These Apps?
Many companies use these apps to keep surveillance on their employees and their future family planning. This extreme measure can induce discriminatory policies against women whose private information has been shared with the company.
In addition, many women have commented that the period tracking apps were mostly unsuccessful in keeping track of their pregnancies and other activities. It either resulted in providing wrong information or pseudo-scientific literature on menstrual health at times.
Most apps are also intricately designed for people who identify as cis-women. There is a lack of gender-neutral period tracking apps for people other than cis-women. Along with this, most apps are centred around pregnancy. It is either to avoid getting pregnant or find ways for conception by predicting one’s ovulation period.
A lot of women have also complained that period apps are aesthetically offending by appearing too “girly”. Most of them display overwhelming shades of pink and flowers everywhere that stereotypes not only the gender but also ignores the fact that menstruation and reproductive health are umbrella terms. That menstrual health goes beyond any one particular gender and includes all identities.
But the truth is that our private information is not being kept private by these health-oriented apps. Keeping a check on the “app permission’ texts before clicking, yes can help. Brief research on the app you are using will help you understand whether the company follows ethical guidelines or not and will help you maintain your privacy.