Is My Period Tracking App Safe in Post-Roe America?

Hi folks, it’s Kristen in NYC. One reader is wondering how to best protect her privacy as reproductive rights are under fire in America. But before we get to that…

Should women in the US be concerned about the government using their data from period tracking apps against them in light of the overturning of Roe v. Wade? Elizabeth, Seattle, Washington

In the past year or so women in America have been forced to contend with the fact that rights we have long taken for granted may not be quite as unassailable as once thought. It was just last week that Wyoming went so far as to enact a ban not only on abortion, but also abortion pills — a first. (The ban has been temporarily stayed.)

And by tracking not only when you get your period, but also when you miss it, period tracking apps do contain extremely sensitive data. If you’re in a state now rolling back rights to reproductive care, it makes sense to question whether you should still be tracking your period in an app — once your data is in there, it’s next to impossible for you to control which third parties might have access to it. Our data, after all, is the currency that powers pretty much everything we do online.

“The short answer is no, people don’t need to rush to delete their period tracker apps, even if they’re in states that ban abortion,” says Daly Barnett, a staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

It’s not that your data is necessarily protected in period tracking apps, says Barnett, but more that our digital footprints extend far beyond them.

“People that are worried about their reproductive health data ought to think a bit bigger than just period tracker apps,” says Barnett. “We have examples elsewhere of how data is used against people in cases around abortion, and it’s not on period tracker apps.”

In one case, for example, police used Facebook messages to investigate an alleged illegal abortion. In other cases, women have been prosecuted using text messages and web search history.

“It’s important to know that users' private health information is exposed in many more places than just an app,” says Alexandra Givens, president of the Center for Democracy & Technology. “Your cellphone provider and other apps on your phone know your location and may store and sell that data, which can reveal whether you’ve visited a particular medical provider. A person's online search history and internet browsing history can be collected, stored and shared.”

Barnett, at the EFF, says compartmentalizing sensitive data is a good way to keep it more private. Some web browsers and messaging apps are built with more privacy in mind than others. When discussing sensitive topics, for example, it’s a good idea to make sure you’re using a messaging app with end-to-end encryption, such as Signal.

Some period tracking apps, such as Euki, similarly, prioritize privacy more than others.

“If you really want to use an app, look for one that allows users to stay anonymous, that stores information on your device rather than in the cloud, and that clearly states that the company will not share or sell your data,” says Givens. — Kristen V. Brown