Is Your Period Tracking App Spying on You Post-Dobbs?

After the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion in 2022 and abortion was banned in Tennessee, Dr. Danielle Kelvas stopped using her menstrual cycle tracking app.

“It frightened me … I actually got frightened because it tracked me for like, a week,” Kelvas said of the Oura Ring feature Cycle Insights. “And I thought, where’s this information going?”

Following the Dobbs V. Jackson Supreme Court decision, data privacy experts urged individuals to scrutinize menstrual cycle tracking apps. The information collected by these apps or tracked via wearable devices like Fitbit or Oura Ring could potentially be used in prosecuting those seeking abortions in criminalizing states.

Kelvas, a former emergency room physician, liked her Oura Ring for its biometric insights. However, when the Cycle Insights feature was introduced, she found the data storage terms unclear and decided to delete the app.

Efforts to reach Oura for comments on their privacy policies were unsuccessful.

Kelvas lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where abortion is banned except to prevent death for the expectant person. In August 2022, a trigger ban made obtaining or performing an abortion a criminal offense.

“So, I deleted it,” Kelvas said.

Opal Pandya, a 25-year-old Philadelphian, deleted the app Flo after noticing targeted ads for period-related products and learning about third-party data sharing. Concerned about data privacy, she also stopped using her Apple Watch’s cycle tracking feature.

Pandya, wary of healthcare privacy, emphasized the risks highlighted by the Dobbs decision.

“I have always been sensitive about my health information,” Pandya said, adding that overturning Roe v. Wade deepened distrust, especially among minority women.

Kelvas, now running a medical writing service and consulting for IT Medical, underscores the importance of cycle tracking for reproductive health. However, she notes that sensitive data can easily go unprotected.

Misconceptions exist around healthcare data protection under HIPAA. Menstrual cycle tracking apps and other technologies like patient-doctor texting platforms are not covered.

In states with strict laws, navigating reproductive rights is challenging.

For many women, pregnancy can lead to legal trouble under current conditions.

Data up for grabs?

There hasn’t been a case yet where menstrual tracking app data has been subpoenaed, likely due to slow legal processes, said Jake Laperruque, deputy director of the Center for Democracy and Technology’s Security and Surveillance Project. Nonetheless, terms and conditions leave companies vulnerable to data subpoenas.

Laperruque warned that prosecuting abortion cases could employ more than just period tracking app data.

“There are a lot of really innocuous-seeming data in healthcare,” he said, referencing location information, communications, and metadata patterns.

Prosecutors could use location data from social media apps to track visits to abortion providers.

“Data collected by apps, wearables, could now be used by law enforcement or even private individuals to target those seeking reproductive care,” he said.

Digital footprints have been instrumental in reproductive case prosecutions before the Dobbs decision.

In 2018, a Mississippi woman was charged with murder after a stillbirth, partly prosecuted due to past searches on pregnancy termination.

Last year, a Nebraska teenager was convicted for terminating a pregnancy after Facebook messages between her and her mother were subpoenaed.

How to assess data privacy?

Users need to protect their data by thoroughly reading privacy policies, according to Andrew Crawford of the Center for Democracy and Technology.

“It really is incumbent on users to do their homework,” Crawford said.

He advised checking app permissions, data encryption levels, and whether data is stored locally or in the cloud.

Wearable devices like Apple’s also have encryption measures and comply with subpoena requests by law enforcement.

The cost of your data

App developer Elizabeth Ha created Monthly in response to the Dobbs decision. It stores health data privately on a user’s device without entering a database and doesn’t share data with anyone except the user.

Ha, a former user of other period trackers, was motivated by privacy concerns.

“Once your data gets sent to data warehouses, it’s like a little black box,” she said.

Many period trackers are free because they sell data to larger companies, Ha noted.

“For them to be a business, a lot of the business is selling the data,” she said.

Many Americans await a comprehensive federal data privacy overhaul. The American Privacy Rights Act, proposed in May, aims to enhance transparency and user control over personal data and restrict biometric data transfers without consent.

Those seeking to protect their reproductive health data must stay vigilant about the terms and conditions of their devices and apps.

“We need to be more protective on both the surveillance and consumer data sides,” Laperruque said.