New research shows Americans are concerned about menstrual data collected by period tracking apps, but few users have taken steps to protect their privacy after Roe v. Wade is decided in June 2022. He said he wasn't there.
The Roe scandal raised concerns that law enforcement could request menstrual data from period apps when investigating abortions, or that the information would otherwise be monitored. But of the nearly 200 people Duke University researchers surveyed about their concerns about period tracking apps, only 9% said they had done something to alleviate their anxiety, such as deleting the app.
“This may suggest that the Roe v. Wade reversal has played a limited role in female users' privacy concerns and practices against period-tracking apps,” the researchers wrote in their study. This is stated in the paper.
'Delete your period tracking apps,' says reproductive rights expert
ProPublica reports that the health information stored in most period tracking apps is not protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, also known as HIPAA.
Pardis Emami Naini, an associate professor of computer science at Duke University, was part of the research team for this study. Emami Naini, who mentored the co-authors as an undergraduate, told me Wednesday that “some of the participants didn't understand why Low's fall from grace had anything to do with privacy itself.”
The group examined responses from 183 people after excluding some participants who live in states with abortion restrictions based on fetal viability. About half of them lived in seven states: Alaska, Colorado, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, and Vermont, as well as Washington, D.C., which had no pregnancy restrictions on abortion.
The remaining people live in one of the 14 states where abortion is prohibited (Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia) and I lived in Wisconsin, where there was a prohibition law. A near-total ban was in place during the study period.
Most participants said their biggest concern when using period tracking apps was data sharing, followed by user control, the type of data collected and where it was stored. 37% said it would be unacceptable for app companies to hand over personal data, especially menstrual information, to law enforcement or government authorities.
“Sharing this type of personal information with law enforcement is unnecessary, not to mention, incredibly wrong,” said an Alabama resident who participated in the study.
Political affiliation also influenced people's answers about period management apps. The survey found that Republicans were more concerned about data practices than Democrats. Half of the respondents who identified themselves as Republicans lived in states where abortion is prohibited.
Additionally, 13% of participants who took steps to address privacy concerns after Roe said period tracking was a necessary evil. “I have to track my cycle because I literally can't function on the second and third day,” said the Texas woman.
Researchers said the results show that more education and awareness about how health data is stored in apps is needed going forward.
“One of the things I would really like app companies to think about is being more transparent about the data practices of their apps,” Emami Naini said.
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