Period-tracking apps pose ‘significant risks’ for users, new report finds – CTV
June 10, 2025
Menstrual cycle tracking apps could jeopardize the safety and privacy of users, a new report warns, with personal data commonly sold to companies.
The stakes are high since period tracking apps have soared in popularity and become ubiquitous amid limited access to information, a lack of research and stigma about menstruation health.
A 2024 study estimates that global downloads for the three most popular menstruation cycle tracking apps surpassed 250 million.
Those who use apps that track periods often don’t consider the data “intimate” or commercially valuable, and need more protections from potential abuse of their personal information, according to the report released Tuesday, by The Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy (MCTD), an independent team of academic researchers at the University of Cambridge in the U.K. would split up this long list of proper names
“Menstrual tracking applications turn personal health information into data points to be collected, analyzed, and sold,” according to the report.
