What You Do Not Expect When You Are Expecting: Privacy Analysis of Femtech
Jacob Erickson, Jewel Y. Yuzon, Tamara Bonaci
Abstract
In this article, we focus on <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">femtech</i> , a category of software, diagnostics, and products that serve female health needs. While acknowledging the unprecedented growth and potential of the femtech industry, we recognize the importance, the sensitivity, and the ease of access to the data recorded and shared by femtech apps. We examine the range of threats arising from the misuse and abuse of femtech apps. We then conduct a two-pronged analysis of a selection of femtech apps. First, we analyze privacy policies of these apps, to identify which data those apps self-report to share, and with whom. Next, we perform network analysis, to identify what data the apps actually share with third parties, and how that data is preprocessed and transmitted to the third parties. The goals of our paper are: 1) to point out the severe consequences of possible misuse of femtech and 2) to examine appropriate technical and regulatory approaches to improve the current industry, without trying to slow it down.