Latest news with #femtech
CTV News
13-06-2025
- Health
- CTV News
Period-tracking apps pose ‘significant risks' for users, new report finds
Experts say companies could sell the data of those who use menstrual cycle tracking apps. (Pexels) Menstrual cycle tracking apps could jeopardize the safety and privacy of users, a new report warns, with personal data commonly sold to companies. The stakes are high since period tracking apps have soared in popularity and become ubiquitous amid limited access to information, a lack of research and stigma about menstruation health. A 2024 study estimates that global downloads for the three most popular menstruation cycle tracking apps surpassed 250 million. Those who use apps that track periods often don't consider the data 'intimate' or commercially valuable, and need more protections from potential abuse of their personal information, according to the report released Tuesday by The Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy. MCTD is an independent team of academic researchers at the University of Cambridge in the U.K. 'Menstrual tracking applications turn personal health information into data points to be collected, analyzed, and sold,' according to the report. Data sold to companies, advertisers The study noted the apps pose 'significant risks' for users as femtech has become a 'lucrative trend' and the user data is 'extremely valuable' for a wide range of companies, from those that developed the app to big tech firms and advertising industries. Femtech refers to digital products, services or technologies promoting women's health and wellbeing, with period-tracking apps making up 50 per cent of the US$22 billion market in 2020. 'People vastly underestimate the commercial value of menstrual data and the extent to which it can provide insights into their political preferences, health issues, or reproductive choices,' researchers wrote. The apps offer a way for users to track daily information on anything related to their menstrual health, such as menstrual cycles, predictions on periods, premenstrual syndrome (PMS), ovulation and fertility. Security and privacy risks To add to the concerns, researchers say the apps also pose risks to data security and privacy, noting it's widely used in the online advertising industry. 'Self-tracking data has been used to police people's reproductive choices, to undermine a user's testimony in court, and it can lead to increased vulnerability in intimate relationships, partner violence, risks to job prospects via employer access to CTA (cycle tracking application) data, workplace monitoring, or possible health insurance discrimination,' according to the report. Meanwhile, the report also referred to 'severe security risks,' noting an example in the U.K. where period tracker data was used to charge women for illegally accessing abortion services. Are period apps accurate? The study notes many medical studies showed that the apps 'fail to accurately calculate cycle length or ovulation windows' and additional data from people is often not used to improve predictions. Rather, researchers say the information is 'predominantly a source of value' for the companies. 'With most apps providing no or very little information on how predictions are made, a 2023 study found that some users were encouraged to track more data to fine-tune their predictions and train an imagined algorithm,' it wrote. While users commonly turn to the apps to help them conceive or prevent getting pregnant, people with irregular cycles or conditions such as poly-cystic ovary syndrome, endometriosis, or premenstrual dysphoric disorder may also use the apps to try to understand their medical issues. Many people use the apps to track their emotions and bodily functions as well. Recommendations The report recommends improving health care for and incentivising research on menstrual and reproductive health, such as through cycle tracking companies and research institutes working together. It encourages schools and organizations to help raise awareness about menstrual tracking for all ages. Additionally, it recommends alternatives, such as public bodies developing apps that are 'trustworthy' and collect data in a 'responsible way.' The report also calls for stricter regulation of menstrual tracking data as 'sensitive health information' in the United States and tighter enforcement of existing regulations in the U.K. and European Union. It suggests improving security through 'consent options,' clear and accessible privacy policies, and prioritizing data privacy and security in the app design. Apps could be more 'transparent' by providing clear information on how tracking data is used to make predictions, with interface options for those who cannot or do not want to become pregnant. The report notes that not all women menstruate and not everyone with menstrual cycles is a woman. For instance, it wrote that children and teenagers have periods, trans men can menstruate and trans women can experience symptoms similar to premenstrual syndrome (PMS). Most apps are designed for straight cis women who want to get pregnant, it added. David Young, a privacy and regulatory law expert in Toronto, told in a video interview Monday that Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act already follows the report's recommendations, though the law is 'not always enforced.' According to Canada's federal privacy law, an organization must not require individuals to consent to the collection, use or disclosure of their information beyond 'explicitly specified, and legitimate purposes.' 'Assuming those specific and legitimate purposes are the tracking that the individual is seeking by use of the app, then they shouldn't be allowed to also require, as a condition of using the app, that they're going to sell that information to somebody else,' Young said. He noted Canada also faces a problem with companies selling consumers' medical data, including electronic health records. Young said menstrual-related cycle data is considered 'sensitive personal health information.' 'And that has a very high standard of compliance under any privacy law, meaning that there must be clear ... consent to for whatever uses are going to be made of that information. So it's not something you can just use by way of implied consent.'
The Guardian
10-06-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
Public health bodies urged to launch period tracking apps to protect data
Public health bodies should launch alternatives to commercial period tracker apps, experts have said, as a report warns women's personal data is at risk of being harvested by private companies. Smartphone apps that track menstrual cycles are a 'goldmine' for consumer profiling, collecting information on everything from exercise, diet and medication to sexual preferences, hormone levels and contraception use, according to the research by the University of Cambridge. And the financial worth of this data is 'vastly underestimated' by users who supply profit-driven companies with highly intimate details in a market lacking regulation, the report says. In the wrong hands, cycle tracking app (CTA) data could result in risks to job prospects, workplace monitoring, health insurance discrimination and cyberstalking, and even limit access to abortion, the research suggests. The authors 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. 'Menstrual cycle tracking apps are presented as empowering women and addressing the gender health gap,' said the report's lead author, Dr Stefanie Felsberger, of Cambridge's Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy. '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.' Most cycle tracking apps are targeted at women aiming to get pregnant, so the download data alone is of huge commercial value, according to the report. Along with homebuying, no other life event is linked to such dramatic shifts in consumer behaviour. Data on pregnancy is believed to be more than 200 times more valuable than data on age, gender or location for targeted advertising. The report says period tracking could also be used to target women at different points in their cycle. The three most popular apps had estimated global download figures of a quarter of a billion in 2024. The femtech market – digital products focused on women's health and wellbeing – will be worth more than $60bn (£44bn) by 2027, the report says. With such intense demand for period tracking, the authors called on public health bodies including the NHS in the UK to develop their own transparent and trustworthy apps to rival those from private companies, with apps allowing permission for data to be used in medical research. 'The UK is ideally positioned to solve the question of access to menstrual data for researchers, as well as privacy and data commodification concerns, by developing an NHS app to track menstrual cycles,' said Felsberger, who added that the reproductive health provider Planned Parenthood in the US already had its own app but the UK lacked an equivalent. 'Apps that are situated within public healthcare systems, and not driven primarily by profit, will mitigate privacy violations, provide much-needed data on reproductive health, and give people more agency over how their menstrual data is used.' Prof Gina Neff, the executive director of the Minderoo Centre, said: 'The use of cycle tracking apps is at an all-time high. Women deserve better than to have their menstrual tracking data treated as consumer data.' In the UK and EU, period tracking data is considered 'special category', as with that on genetics or ethnicity, and has more legal safeguarding. In the US, data on menstrual cycles has been collected by officials in an attempt to undermine abortion access, the report says.
CTV News
10-06-2025
- Health
- CTV News
Menstrual tracking app data in the wrong hands ‘could result in risks to job prospects, workplace monitoring'
Experts say companies could sell the data of those who use menstrual cycle tracking apps. (Pexels) Menstrual cycle tracking apps could jeopardize the safety and privacy of users, a new report warns, with personal data commonly sold to companies. The stakes are high since period tracking apps have soared in popularity and become ubiquitous amid limited access to information, a lack of research and stigma about menstruation health. A 2024 study estimates that global downloads for the three most popular menstruation cycle tracking apps surpassed 250 million. Those who use apps that track periods often don't consider the data 'intimate' or commercially valuable, and need more protections from potential abuse of their personal information, according to the report released Tuesday, by The Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy (MCTD), an independent team of academic researchers at the University of Cambridge in the U.K. would split up this long list of proper names 'Menstrual tracking applications turn personal health information into data points to be collected, analyzed, and sold,' according to the report. Data sold to companies, advertisers The study noted the apps pose 'significant risks' for users as femtech has become a 'lucrative trend' and the user data is 'extremely valuable' for a wide range of companies, from those that developed the app to big tech firms and advertising industries. Femtech refers to digital products, services or technologies promoting women's health and wellbeing, with period-tracking apps making up 50 per cent of the US$22 billion market in 2020. 'People vastly underestimate the commercial value of menstrual data and the extent to which it can provide insights into their political preferences, health issues, or reproductive choices,' researchers wrote. The apps offer a way for users to track daily information on anything related to their menstrual health, such as menstrual cycles, predictions on periods, premenstrual syndrome (PMS), ovulation and fertility. Security and privacy risks To add to the concerns, researchers say the apps also pose risks to data security and privacy, noting it's widely used in the online advertising industry. 'Self-tracking data has been used to police people's reproductive choices, to undermine a user's testimony in court, and it can lead to increased vulnerability in intimate relationships, partner violence, risks to job prospects via employer access to CTA (cycle tracking application) data, workplace monitoring, or possible health insurance discrimination,' according to the report. Meanwhile, the report also referred to 'severe security risks,' noting an example in the U.K. where period tracker data was used to charge women for illegally accessing abortion services. Are period apps accurate? The study notes many medical studies showed that the apps 'fail to accurately calculate cycle length or ovulation windows' and additional data from people is often not used to improve predictions. Rather, researchers say the information is 'predominantly a source of value' for the companies. 'With most apps providing no or very little information on how predictions are made, a 2023 study found that some users were encouraged to track more data to fine-tune their predictions and train an imagined algorithm,' it wrote. While users commonly turn to the apps for help them conceive or prevent getting pregnant, people with irregular cycles or conditions such as poly-cystic ovary syndrome, endometriosis, or premenstrual dysphoric disorder may also use the apps to try to understand their medical issues. Many people use the apps to track their emotions and bodily functions as well. Recommendations The report recommends improving health care for and incentivising research on menstrual and reproductive health, such as through cycle tracking companies and research institutes working together. It encourages schools and organizations to help raise awareness about menstrual tracking for all ages. Additionally, it recommends alternatives, such as public bodies developing apps that are 'trustworthy' and collect data in a 'responsible way.' The report also calls for stricter regulation of menstrual tracking data as 'sensitive health information' in the United States and tighter enforcement of existing regulations in the U.K. and European Union. It suggests improving security through 'consent options,' clear and accessible privacy policies, and prioritizing data privacy and security in the app design. Apps could be more 'transparent' by providing clear information on how tracking data is used to make predictions, with interface options for those who cannot or do not want to become pregnant. The report notes that not all women menstruate and not everyone with menstrual cycles is a woman. For instance, it wrote that children and teenagers have periods, trans men can menstruate and trans women can experience symptoms similar to premenstrual syndrome (PMS). Most apps are designed for straight cis women who want to get pregnant, it added. David Young, a privacy and regulatory law expert in Toronto, told in a video interview Monday that Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act already follows the report's recommendations, though the law is 'not always enforced.' According to Canada's federal privacy law, an organization must not require individuals to consent to the collection, use or disclosure of their information beyond 'explicitly specified, and legitimate purposes.' 'Assuming those specific and legitimate purposes are the tracking that the individual is seeking by use of the app, then they shouldn't be allowed to also require, as a condition of using the app, that they're going to sell that information to somebody else,' Young said. He noted Canada also faces a problem with companies selling consumers' medical data, including electronic health records. Young said menstrual-related cycle data is considered 'sensitive personal health information.' 'And that has a very high standard of compliance under any privacy law, meaning that there must be clear ... consent to for whatever uses are going to be made of that information. So it's not something you can just use by way of implied consent.'
South China Morning Post
06-06-2025
- Health
- South China Morning Post
New women's health summit in Hong Kong highlights femtech
It's not news that around the world, women are disproportionately hampered by regressive state policies and lack of funding, with either or both restricting their rights to medical access, but there's also an increasing number of women-led start-ups and companies seeking to challenge the status quo. To address the issues, Hong Kong will host the inaugural Women's Health in Focus: A Global Summit, on June 16 and 17. As Hong Kong's first large-scale symposium dedicated to women's health, the event will bring together 40 international leaders across healthcare, technology, investment and entrepreneurship at the Asia Society Hong Kong Centre to share their experiences and kick-start discussion on topics from women's longevity, brain and heart health, disease prevention and workplace wellness. The growing field of femtech , or women's health technology, is a focus of the summit, with some of the biggest movers showcasing global best practices in maternal health patient support, menstrual products , gynaecological devices and solutions in fertility. Maaike Steinebach wants to elevate women's health as a strategic priority in boardrooms and policy agendas across Asia. Photo: Handout 'For too long, women's health has been marginalised in clinical trials, tech development and healthcare design,' says Anca Griffiths, summit co-founder and CEO of Hong Kong-based edu-tech company OM Health Hub Maaike Steinebach , femtech consultant and fellow summit co-founder also based in Hong Kong, wants to elevate women's health as a strategic priority in boardrooms and policy agendas across Asia. Building momentum for investment in women's health 'as a cornerstone of economic resilience and innovation', she says, 'means more funding for research, more tailored health employee benefits for women in the workplace, and a clearer understanding that equitable healthcare isn't just a moral imperative, it's a growth driver'. Speakers include Dr Christopher Asandra, a renowned longevity expert who will share the tools and protocols he uses to treat Hollywood's elite; Dr Lisa Larkin, a women's health expert who will present a road map for disease prevention; and Dr Cassandra Szoeke, a leading brain-health researcher and author of Secrets of Women's Healthy Aging (2021). The summit will also host the global launch of the Women's Longevity Blueprint, a pioneering initiative designed to deliver targeted tools and strategies to help women prevent disease and extend their lifespan. 'Women's health is not only a personal issue; it's an economic one,' says Steinebach. 'For every dollar we invest in women's health, we get three dollars' worth of GDP. When we overlook women's specific health needs, we lose out on productivity, innovation and inclusive progress.'
South China Morning Post
06-06-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
New women's health summit in Hong Kong highlights femtech
It's not news that around the world, women are disproportionately hampered by regressive state policies and lack of funding, with either or both restricting their rights to medical access, but there's also an increasing number of women-led start-ups and companies seeking to challenge the status quo. To address the issues, Hong Kong will host the inaugural Women's Health in Focus: A Global Summit, on June 16 and 17. As Hong Kong's first large-scale symposium dedicated to women's health, the event will bring together 40 international leaders across healthcare, technology, investment and entrepreneurship at the Asia Society Hong Kong Centre to share their experiences and kick-start discussion on topics from women's longevity, brain and heart health, disease prevention and workplace wellness. The growing field of femtech , or women's health technology, is a focus of the summit, with some of the biggest movers showcasing global best practices in maternal health patient support, menstrual products , gynaecological devices and solutions in fertility. Maaike Steinebach wants to elevate women's health as a strategic priority in boardrooms and policy agendas across Asia. Photo: Handout 'For too long, women's health has been marginalised in clinical trials, tech development and healthcare design,' says Anca Griffiths, summit co-founder and CEO of Hong Kong-based edu-tech company OM Health Hub Maaike Steinebach , femtech consultant and fellow summit co-founder also based in Hong Kong, wants to elevate women's health as a strategic priority in boardrooms and policy agendas across Asia. Building momentum for investment in women's health 'as a cornerstone of economic resilience and innovation', she says, 'means more funding for research, more tailored health employee benefits for women in the workplace, and a clearer understanding that equitable healthcare isn't just a moral imperative, it's a growth driver'. Speakers include Dr Christopher Asandra, a renowned longevity expert who will share the tools and protocols he uses to treat Hollywood's elite; Dr Lisa Larkin, a women's health expert who will present a road map for disease prevention; and Dr Cassandra Szoeke, a leading brain-health researcher and author of Secrets of Women's Healthy Aging (2021). The summit will also host the global launch of the Women's Longevity Blueprint, a pioneering initiative designed to deliver targeted tools and strategies to help women prevent disease and extend their lifespan. 'Women's health is not only a personal issue; it's an economic one,' says Steinebach. 'For every dollar we invest in women's health, we get three dollars' worth of GDP. When we overlook women's specific health needs, we lose out on productivity, innovation and inclusive progress.'
