Flo mentioned it could add an “nameless mode” to its interval monitoring app as customers raised issues about knowledge privateness within the wake of the Supreme Court docket’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
In a tweet on Friday, the corporate mentioned it could quickly launch an possibility that may permit customers to trace their menstrual cycles with out offering some figuring out data.
“We’ll do all the pieces in our energy to guard the information and privateness of our customers,” Flo mentioned in another tweet. “We’re engaged on a brand new characteristic known as nameless mode so customers can entry the Flo app anonymously with out offering their identify or electronic mail handle.”
WHY IT MATTERS
After a draft opinion of the Supreme Court docket’s choice leaked in early Might, some experts argued the information collected in interval monitoring apps could possibly be used to construct a case towards customers in states the place abortion is now unlawful.
Nonetheless, privateness surrounding ladies’s well being apps is not a brand new concern. A review published in JMIR analyzing femtech apps discovered 20 out of 23 shared knowledge with third events, and solely 16 displayed a privateness coverage. In the meantime, three apps started gathering knowledge earlier than acquiring consent from customers.
One other analysis by cybersecurity and VPN company Surfshark discovered 9 of 20 well-liked interval monitoring apps shared knowledge for promoting functions, and 10 collected coarse location knowledge, which may’t be tracked to a precise handle however can supply extra approximate location data.
In the meantime, Flo has confronted blowback over knowledge sharing up to now. In early 2021, it settled with the Federal Trade Commission relating to a criticism alleging improper disclosure of delicate person knowledge to third-party advertising and analytics companies from Fb, Google and others.
The corporate mentioned the FTC settlement was not an act of contrition, and it has since undergone a privateness audit that “didn’t determine any materials gaps or weaknesses in Flo’s privateness practices.”
THE LARGER TREND
Different interval monitoring apps have additionally launched statements relating to their privateness insurance policies within the wake of the Roe choice. Stardust, an app that mixes interval monitoring with monitoring planetary our bodies just like the moon and planets, mentioned it is going to quickly supply end-to-end encryption in a press release posted to its TikTok page.
Berlin-based Clue mentioned it employs de-identified knowledge when used for analysis functions and shares as little data as attainable when it really works with outdoors service suppliers.
“Your personally identifiable well being knowledge relating to pregnancies, being pregnant loss or abortion is saved non-public and secure,” co-CEOs Carrie Walter and Audrey Tsang mentioned in a press release in Might.
“We don’t promote it, we don’t share it for anybody else’s use, we cannot disclose it. We’re ruled by the world’s strictest privateness legal guidelines (the European GDPR), and we make investments lots of time and expense in ensuring we adjust to them.”
