Post by account_disabled on Mar 4, 2024 23:53:08 GMT -5
Since technology took a turn and was within reach of a single touch through mobile applications, we have been able to perform a large number of personal tasks: from keeping track of our agenda to recording our physical activity. And in recent years, menstrual tracking apps have been added to the application stores, which serve to keep track of women's menstrual cycles, that is, having calendars on hand with the following records: Beginning and end of the menstrual cycle. Periods of ovulation and low fertility. Ideal dates to get pregnant. menstrual tracking apps These types of menstrual tracking apps are increasing in popularity day by day due to how practical they are, however, the reality is that they are not entirely safe. A study by Privacy International, a UK NGO set up to monitor invasions of privacy by governments and corporations, found that companies had intimate information about female users, including answers to questions about when they get yeast infections and with what. They often have sex or see a gynecologist.
More about the study on menstrual tracking apps Privacy International maintains that registration should be optional in these apps and not require an email address, but in most apps, data is stored on the phone. Furthermore, only the information strictly necessary to provide information related to the menstrual cycle should be collected. Eva Blum-Dumontet, a senior researcher at Privacy International, who used five apps and then asked what information was stored about her through a data subject access request, said reading the findings was chilling and makes us realize how much data there is. Apps collect, store, and sometimes share them with others. Other studies affirm what happens with these apps Another study by two researchers from the University of Newcastle in the United Kingdom and Umeå University in Sweden concludes that many of the most popular fertility apps are tracking users and collecting too much sensitive data. In that study called Caring for Intimate Data in Fertility Technologies , they found that menstrual tracking apps collect data that includes: Temperature.
Abortion or pregnancy loss. menstrual tracking apps According to the Fast Company portal , the applications (without informing users) activated an average of almost four trackers upon startup, and most do not comply with European privacy and tracking regulations. Although the study did not delve into the business models of app companies, it is likely that they are free because the companies profit from selling the data to third parties. He added that it is easy to think that data disappears from the network when we are constantly asked to share more, but this is not the case, it is just a good exercise for these companies. Conclusions about menstrual tracking apps For their analysis, researchers Maryam Mehrnezhad and Teresa Almeida downloaded 30 of the top menstrual and fertility tracking apps on the UK Google Play Store. They then used Lumen's Privacy Monitor app to monitor what type of trackers each app was employing, either explicitly or in the background. Mehrnezhad and Almeida first looked at the privacy notices provided by each of the menstrual tracking apps. They found that of the 30 tested, 12 of the apps did not present users with any privacy-related information when they first opened them.