Menstrual tracking app data is a ‘gold mine’ for advertisers that risks women’s safety – report
www.cam.ac.uk
Cambridge researchers urge public health bodies like the NHS to provide trustworthy, research-driven alternatives to platforms driven by profit.

Cambridge researchers urge public health bodies like the NHS to provide trustworthy, research-driven alternatives to platforms driven by profit.

Women deserve better than to have their menstrual tracking data treated as consumer data - Prof Gina Neff

Smartphone apps that track menstrual cycles are a “gold mine” for consumer profiling, collecting information on everything from exercise, diet and medication to sexual preferences, hormone levels and contraception use.

This is according to a new report from the University of Cambridge’s Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy, which 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.

The report’s authors caution that cycle tracking app (CTA) data in the wrong hands could result in risks to job prospects, workplace monitoring, health insurance discrimination and cyberstalking – and limit access to abortion.

They call for better governance of the booming ‘femtech’ industry to protect users when their data is sold at scale, arguing that apps must provide clear consent options rather than all-or-nothing data collection, and urge public health bodies to launch alternatives to commercial CTAs.

  • NOT_RICK@lemmy.worldEnglish
    51·
    3 days ago

    Well on iOS there’s the Apple health app. To my knowledge it stores health data locally. I’ll double check now.

    Edit: it does store health data in iCloud by default, but according to Apple its end to end encrypted

    By default, iCloud automatically keeps your Health app data, including health records, up to date across your devices. To disable this feature, open iCloud settings and turn off Health. iCloud protects your health records data by encrypting it both in storage and during transmission. If you’re using iOS 12 or later and have turned on two-factor authentication for your Apple Account, health records are encrypted using end-to-end encryption through iCloud. This means only you can access this information, and only on devices where you’re signed in to iCloud. No one else, not even Apple, can access end-to-end encrypted information.

    • Lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      11·
      3 days ago

      I’m aware, but the person I responded to specifically mentioned F-Droid, which is Android-only.

    • Autonomous User@lemmy.worldEnglish
      25·
      3 days ago

      Wrong, Apple Health fails to include a libre software license text file. We do not control it, anti-libre software. Does Apple really think we are this easy to scam? It bans us from fixing backdoors. 🚩

      • NOT_RICK@lemmy.worldEnglish
        7·
        3 days ago

        Yeah I know it’s not FOSS in the slightest, but it’s not a predatory app selling your health data to the highest bidder, presumably. I acknowledge that requires taking Apple’s word at face value though

      • Russ@bitforged.spaceEnglish
        1·
        3 days ago

        I mean, sure - but if you really don’t trust Apple to keep their word, then it wouldn’t matter if their Health app was FOSS or not. iOS itself is still (and probably forever will be) a closed source operating system. That gives them the power to do anything, including hijack the data from FOSS apps.