Roe v Wade has now been overturned by the US Supreme Court, removing the country-wide right to an abortion. This will affect access to safe abortions for millions of people in the US. The prospect had already raised questions about the privacy of period-tracking apps. Some apps share data with third parties for advertising or research purposes, causing concern that this data could be used as evidence against anyone seeking or obtaining an abortion in states that now outlaw the procedure. What kind of data is at risk? Period tracking apps vary in scope. Some people record simple details, like when their period begins and ends, and the app makes predictions about when their period will arrive in the future and when they are ovulating. Others also act as social sites, with calendars, nutrition tips, and forums where users can chat about their drive or share experiences trying to get pregnant. The data that can be sold from these apps depends on what is in the terms and conditions, although these can be hundreds of pages long and hard to decipher. Some apps promise to strip identifying details such as a user’s name, address, or email before selling or sharing any data. However, that may not include details like an IP address, which can be linked to a specific device.
“Machine learning techniques are so sophisticated it is not necessary to have a person’s name to uniquely identify them,” says Pam Dixon, founder of World Privacy Forum, a non-profit public research group. That creates a problem if the US Supreme Court strikes nationwide abortion protections. If the draft opinion stands, states will have the power to write their laws around the legality – and illegality – of abortion.“If you live in places where abortion becomes illegal, it would be a bad idea to put in Facebook, Twitter or a period tracker app had an abortion,” says India McKinney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).it also does not have to be explicit, as many apps collect location data. “When that little blue dot goes from that house to that office, you have a pretty good idea of who that is,” says McKinney. Location data be bought and sold? Location data, in general, is elementary and inexpensive to purchase, as Vice News’s Motherboard discovered when it bought a week’s worth of such data from a data broker. The data showed where people came from and went after visiting Planned Parenthood, a reproductive healthcare non-profit. A recent law passed in Texas bans most abortions once cardiac activity in the embryo can be detected via ultrasound, which happens at around six weeks. It offers $10,000 bounties to those who successfully sue people linked to abortions after this point, giving the motive to seek this data.
Law enforcement can access this information without a warrant by buying it, says McKinney. “That is legal.” isn’t my health data protected under the law? Some period-tracking apps claim to be “compliant”, suggesting they are bound by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, a law that safeguards health and medical information. The rule applies to groups such as hospitals, health, and insurance companies, limiting what they can share and disclose. However, HIPAA does not protect data collected by apps someone might download from Apple’s App Store or Google Play.“I think this is a common misconception,” says Quinn Grundy at the University of Toronto in Canada. “Not all health-related data is treated the same way under the law.” should I delete my period-tracking app? Navigation apps need to know your location, but an app tracking ovulation probably does not. McKinney understands the urge to delete period trackers and says that is akin to not buying a car because you do not want someone breaking into it on the street. Instead, she suggests being thoughtful about what you post, picking apps with privacy guarantees you agree with, and rejecting an app’s request to use location data. Ultimately, stronger privacy laws would help. “I don’t want to live in a world where I trust the app to do the right thing with my personal sensitive data,” says McKinney.
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