Pharmacy Daily | Intimate data apps need monitoring

MENSTRUATION monitoring apps are among the latest innovations in 'FemTech', but Flinders University law experts Prof Tania Leiman and Lydia Chia explain that the legal implications of who can access this highly personal data from ovulation apps and how can it be used are not clearly understood.

"As we use apps to monitor more and more about how our bodies function, we need to think carefully about where that data is going and what the unintended consequences - both legal and otherwise - of generating that data might be," said Leiman.

"People who menstruate should understand the bargain they are making; is convenience worth giving up your most intimate privacy and data security?"

Period trackers or ovulation apps monitor menstrual cycles to provide insights into fertility windows and period symptoms, identifying patterns unique to an individual user's cycle.

Predictions of ovulation days or when the next period will occur are based on data collected from the user, ranging from mood changes and frequency of cramps, to sexual habits and basal body temperature.

The growing popularity of these tools has even seen leading health apps, such as Fitbit and Garmin, incorporate period tracking as an additional feature to its other fitness tracking services, while Apple's CycleTracker is a standard feature in the Health App on iPhones.

However, while app users consent to privacy policies that contain varying levels of data and privacy protection, standards regulating data processing, sharing and storage of personal information differ depending on the location in which an ovulation app's company is domiciled.

In Australia, data gathered by ovulation apps fall within the protections for 'personal', 'sensitive' and 'health information' in the Privacy Act, although it's not clear whether it could be also regarded as 'biometric information' or a 'biometric template'.