Those period tracking apps and smart fertility gadgets you’ve got installed? Researchers say many of them could be a privacy and security nightmare waiting to happen.
A new study from cybersecurity experts across several universities in the UK and Europe is raising major red flags about the booming “femtech” market – all those health and wellness apps and devices geared specifically toward women’s needs.
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Period Tracking Apps and Fertility Gadgets Pose Privacy Risks
According to their findings, a troubling number of these femtech products seem to be lacking basic safeguards and protections when it comes to handling extremely sensitive and intimate user data like fertility windows, menstrual cycles, and even sexual activity.
Despite the femtech industry being valued at tens of billions and rapidly growing, the researchers claim it remains woefully under-regulated, at least in the UK and Europe. That’s allowing companies to slap together apps and internet-connected gadgets that may be vacuuming up way more personal data than users realize.
Worse yet, there are hacker groups actively trying to break into this treasure trove of data for nefarious purposes. One researcher bluntly stated “We have identified multiple threat actors interested in femtech data such as fertility and sex information.”
Yikes. Let that be a wake-up call about the value criminals place on getting their hands on data around someone’s reproductive health and intimate life. The researchers have been sounding the alarm to regulators like a deaf ear since 2019.
Beyond shady cybercriminals, the study also calls out the potential for seemingly innocuous app permissions to open pathways for major privacy violations. Like period trackers having access to phone settings, other accounts, even device sensors – any of which could be abused to secretly monitor users.
As one professor involved in the study emphasized, “Users deserve better protection, especially where this relates to sensitive personal health and gender data.”
No one expects maximum cybersecurity from a goofy period meme app. But the fact that the multi-billion dollar femtech market is this wild west of sensitive data mishandling should be a wakeup call.
Researchers want to see much stricter data protection rules and guidelines slapped on these companies. At the very least, users should be made fully aware of how this incredibly personal information could potentially be accessed or exploited.
In an age when reproductive rights are being hotly disputed, having your appendage fertility details swiped by bad actors is the last worry anyone should have to deal with. Hopefully, regulators start listening before too many people get burned.
