Study: Popular women’s health apps don’t meet basic privacy, security standards

A review published in JMIR found that many popular women’s health apps do not meet basic data privacy and security standards. The study analyzed 23 femtech apps and found that all of them included behavioral tracking, while 20 shared data with third parties. The researchers argued that these poor practices are not ethically or legally acceptable, especially considering the sensitive nature of women’s health data. Privacy concerns have also been raised in relation to abortion data that can be obtained from period-tracking apps.