Users of the menstrual monitoring application have been warned by Cambridge researchers
Women who followed their menstrual cycle using smartphone applications have been warned of the risk of confidentiality and security to do so.
A report from the Minder of Minderio of the University of Cambridge said that applications was a “gold mine” for consumer profiling and information collection.
The academics have warned that in bad hands, the data could lead to “discrimination” of health insurance and risks for employment prospects.
Professor Gina Neff, executive director of the Minderoo Center, said: “Women deserve better than having their menstrual monitoring data processed as consumption data, but there is a possible different future.”
Applications collect information about everything, exercise, diet and drugs with sexual preferences, hormone levels and the use of contraception.
Minderooo Center for Technology and Democracy, an independent university team academics, said this data could give an overview of people’s health and their reproductive choices.
The report added that many women used applications when they were trying to get pregnant.
The researchers said that the data on which is pregnant and who wants to be was among the “most sought after information in digital advertising” because it led to a change in the purchasing models.
“Cycle follow-up applications (CTA) are a lucrative company because they provide companies behind applications access to extremely precious and grain user data,” they said.
“CTA data is not only commercially precious and shared with an inextricable net of third parties (thus making the intimate information of users usable for targeted advertising), but it also has serious safety risks for users.”
The research team called for better governance in “femtech” industry, improving data security in these applications and the introduction of “significant consent options”.
They also wanted bodies like the NHS to launch alternatives to commercial monitoring applications with the permission of the data to be used in valid medical research.
Dr. Stefanie Felsberger, principal author of the report, said: “Manstrual cycle follow -up applications are presented as autonomous women and addressing the Lake Health of the Sex.
“However, the corporate model behind its services is based on commercial use, selling user data and information for third parties for lucrative purposes.
“There are risks of real and frightening confidentiality and security for women due to the commodification of the data collected by the cycle monitoring application companies.”
The report indicates that the work published by Privacy International has shown that major CTA companies have updated their approach to data sharing, but information on devices has always been collected without “significant consent”.
Additional reports by PA Media.
