Cambridge researchers urge public health bodies like the NHS to provide trustworthy, research-driven alternatives to platforms driven by profit.
Women deserve better than to have their menstrual tracking data treated as consumer data - Prof Gina Neff
Smartphone apps that track menstrual cycles are a “gold mine” for consumer profiling, collecting information on everything from exercise, diet and medication to sexual preferences, hormone levels and contraception use.
This is according to a new report from the University of Cambridge’s Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy, which argues that the financial worth of this data is “vastly underestimated” by users who supply profit-driven companies with highly intimate details in a market lacking in regulation.
The report’s authors caution that cycle tracking app (CTA) data in the wrong hands could result in risks to job prospects, workplace monitoring, health insurance discrimination and cyberstalking – and limit access to abortion.
They call for better governance of the booming ‘femtech’ industry to protect users when their data is sold at scale, arguing that apps must provide clear consent options rather than all-or-nothing data collection, and urge public health bodies to launch alternatives to commercial CTAs.
Do women need an app for this? Surely a piece of paper would work just as well, and have a 0% chance of selling your data.
Edit: Yeah I deserve that.
Do people need an app for taking notes? Or a calendar?
Sure, I used to do it on paper for many years. But it’s much more convenient to track it on my phone, which I have almost always with me. That way I can check whether I’m likely to be bleeding heavily before making plans with my friends to go swimming that day or on a long hike without access to a toilet.
Also many women don’t just track the blood flow but also other data like temperature, cervix and cervical mucus. This helps calculate the most fertile days. It’s much easier to let an app do that.
Exacty, Drip features tracking for temperature, cervical mucus, the cervix, sex (solo or partner), desire, pain, and mood, along with spotting and your bleeding levels. It’s not just about “when will I have my period?” Additionally I love Drip because of the heads-up notif I get from them 3 days before my predicted period date. Also ut’s nice to have a computer calculate when my period will be and shows me if any were a little off or earlier than expected.
Plus since it’s encrypted and local, law enforcement would have to crack that to find my period data. I could totally imagine law enforcement coming up with a bullshit warrant and breaking into someone’s home, and finding a calendar or notebook marked with their period data and being tried for it.
Do they include period prediction now?
Yup! Pretty accurate too. Shows the day that it’s most likely to happen, and the two days around it are potential days. Gives you a notif about 5 days before it’s predicted to happen.
absolutely. you can also go back to sending hand written mail instead of using email or messaging apps too, but this is 2025 and software exists to help keep track of this.
also apps exist that store local data only.
Do you really need a computer and social media? Just read the newspaper.
The same could be said of to-do lists, right? But I still like having an app with a checklist, because my phone is always with me and a piece of paper is not.
When I did have periods (thank god for testosterone), I had a really difficult time keeping track of them and they were often very irregular. The app I used helped me pick up patterns and would warn me when I needed to be prepped. My dysphoria cope was pretending that they didn’t happen ever, so it was helpful to have that occasional “hey, pack some pads today” as a notification without constantly checking a calendar.