New study accuses women’s health apps of sharing users’ data

Researchers found that eight out of 10 of the most popular period tracking apps share personal data with third parties. 

A report, conducted by the Organisation for the Review of Health and Care Apps (ORCHA), has analysed the privacy policies of 25 period tracker apps finding that 84 per cent of the apps allowed the sharing of personal and sensitive health data to third parties.

Of these, 68 per cent shared data for marketing purposes, 40 per cent for research and 40 per cent for improving developer services of the app itself.

Amongst these 25 apps only one of them explicitly asked users for permission to share their data while the other apps hid this in the terms and conditions, that nearly no one reads carefully.

Tim Andrews, COO of ORCHA, said: “it would be best practice for an app to have a ‘consent’ page that’s easily accessed from the main menu. 

“Each individual permission could then be ticked or unticked at any time. So, a user wanting to guarantee privacy, could easily change their mind and untick the permission to share with third parties.”

The shared data could include details of sexual activity, contraception and when a user’s period started and stopped. Contact detail of users were also sold for marketing purposes.

This comes at an already difficult time after the Roe outcome, when women are already worried about their data being shared to law enforcements and government institutions.

Fatima Ahmed, ORCHA’s clinical lead for maternity and women’s health, said: “Period tracker apps have come into sharp focus for alarming reasons – but they are probably the tip of the iceberg when it comes to data security.

“And even app developers who promise to stop sharing names and addresses, for example, should be aware that people can be identified by and IP address.”