Use of data by menstruation apps

In connection with International Girls in ICT Day, celebrated on 28 April this year, we would like to highlight how too much information is requested by some mobile apps used to monitor menstruation. According to a study published by Privacy International in 2018, 60% of menstrual cycle app developers transferred data to Facebook. According to the authors of this study, it appears that some companies have reviewed this practice. However, it may still be taking place given the vast amount of intimate personal information they collect from users.

Women’s health apps play a prominent role in the app markets. Together with pregnancy apps, they account for 7% of the apps available in the various markets according to the Institute for Healthcare Informatics. Menstruation apps monitor the progress of the cycle and provide information on how long it lasts, the ovulation and fertility period to aid in getting pregnant, and mood changes and symptoms. Many of these apps can record various symptoms such as mood, cramps, headaches and acne, among others. They also enable you to estimate the day menstruation will start, record the amount of bleeding during the period, the pain it causes, whether you have been able to rest during the night, sex and energy during the day.

As pointed out by Carme Pratdepàdua, the manager of mHealth and the App Certification Service at the TIC Salut Social Foundation, one aspect to bear in mind is that most of these apps ask the user to fill in long questionnaires so they can get to know the person and their habits. This “creates distrust because very personal questions are asked and they are often not essential for the operation of the app”. So she recommends app users, and the guardians of minors who use them, before installing any such app, to consider whether it asks them for a lot of personal information, such as the number of times they have sex a month, or how often they have sexual desire, since these data are not needed to track menstruation.

The head of the App Certification Service warns that people tend to believe all the information provided by these apps without checking if it is reliable or if the data requested is really essential for the intended use and purpose. “There are cases in which, based on the principle of trust, a person believes everything the app says simply because, if the app works to calculate when menstruation should come, it will also be totally reliable in every other area. This can pose a problem and take advantage of the person’s trust.”

Pratdepàdua concludes that one of the major drawbacks of these apps is the lack of critical debate and a common framework of reference for the quality of health applications. Accordingly, the TIC Salut Social Foundation is seeking to promote guides and tools to encourage the development of mobile apps that follow principles such as transparency, trust, accessibility, usability, security and reliability. It has a certification process to assess health apps.