Bellabeat becomes first women’s health tracking app to implement private key encryption

The Californian wellness company Bellabeat becomes the first period tracker to roll out a new data security layer to protect users’ data in the wake of the US Supreme Court ruling.

Bellabeat had been using full end-to-end encryption to protect its users, as the method was considered a secure way to protect customers’ data.

Now the San Francisco-based company decided to introduce private key encryption to better protect health data.

The newly implemented encryption feature is hoped to enable the users of the app to access and decrypt their data using a private key via their Bellabeat mobile app.

Any data stored on the company’s servers will be in an encrypted form only. Thus, no one can access the Bellabeat servers lawfully or unlawfully.

The extra layer of security means that the data stored on the company’s servers can’t be read without holding an individual user’s private key – a password or a pin code that only the user knows. The only person who could have access to the health data will be the users themselves.

Without that key, the data is unreadable, says Bellabeat. The company will therefore not be able to benefit from collecting end-user data “in any shape or form”, including for internal research or product improvements.

Bellabeat executives determined that there was not a question in options and that users’ safety at this time is of the utmost importance.

The company’s decision comes weeks after a US Supreme Court ruled overturning Roe v Wade on June 24, raising concerns over data protection.

“Our business is helping women to track and understand their cycles and bodies,” says Urska Sršen, co-founder of Bellabeat. “The overturning of Roe v Wade is a tremendous blow to women’s rights.

“Many women are now in fear of exactly what to share and where to share it. This ruling will change how health data and records are maintained offline with OBGYNs and primary care physicians, what women feel safe to disclose, and will grossly change how women will choose to share their reproductive information online.”

She adds: “We will continue to be a safe and progressive space for women to track their cycles, fertility, and all wellness concerns. Incorporating the private key encryption feature means an extra layer of security designed to ensure our users’ safety and show them that we are unable to leak or sell their data and that a breach within Bellabeat’s servers will never mean a threat to their personal safety.”

Sandro Mur, co-founder of Bellabeat, says that the idea that health data could be used to criminalise women is “horrific”.

“It’s not a sentiment reflected anywhere in healthcare or health rights for the male body. We stand with women everywhere and have taken the necessary steps.

“The implementation of the private key encryption ensures that we will never be placed in a position, as a company, where we could be forced to submit user’s private health data in its readable form.”

Muhammad Ikram, lecturer at the Macquarie University Cyber Security Hub in Sydney, warned users to remain cautions.

“We need more regulation to ensure the use of data responsibly,” the expert told FemTech World. “I would advise people to have a closer look at the permissions these apps are asking for and at the extent to which they can monitor their activity.”