Women in 13 US states urged to delete period tracking apps now
Women across the country are being urged to delete certain apps due to privacy concerns.
This comes after the US Supreme Court overturned the longstanding right to abortion in 2022, leaving it up to the states to decide.
Since then, public fears have grown that data collected from period tracking apps could be used against women.
Now, people are being warned to delete certain apps to provide their information, in particular in the 13 states which have the strictest abortion policies.
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These states are Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia.
On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court made the landmark ruling in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which decided 6-3 to overturn the decision previously made in 1973 in Roe v Wade.
The Supreme Court decided that authority on regulation pertaining to abortion access should be handed back to individual states. Now, fears are being raised about the privacy issues surrounding period apps, with research at the University of Cambridge revealing that these apps are a ‘gold mine’ for advertisers.
In a report from the university’s Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy argues that the ‘financial worth of this data is vastly underestimated by users who supply profit-driven companies with highly intimate details in a market lacking in regulation’.
Dr Stefanie Felsberger, lead author of the report from Cambridge’s Minderoo Centre, said: “Menstrual cycle tracking apps are presented as empowering women and addressing the gender health gap. Yet the business model behind their services rests on commercial use, selling user data and insights to third parties for profit.
“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.”
Concerns in the US have been raised that the data collected and shared with third parties could also be passed onto law enforcement, which could impact someone who has had an abortion.
Following the Supreme Court ruling, some period apps have directly addressed fears, with co-CEOs of Clue, Carrie Walter and Audrey Tsang, stating: “As the female Co-CEOs of Clue, we promise you that we will never turn your private health data over to any authority that could use it against you. Your personally identifiable health data regarding pregnancies, pregnancy loss or abortion, is kept private and safe. We don’t sell it, we don’t share it for anyone else’s use, we won’t disclose it. We are governed by the world’s strictest privacy laws (the European GDPR), and we invest a lot of time and expense in making sure we comply with them.”