In recent years, millions of women have quietly deleted their period tracking apps.
What was once seen as an empowering tool for understanding one’s body has
become a source of mistrust. The reason? Privacy, profit, and power, and who really
owns your most personal data.
Period tracker apps became popular for helping women monitor their menstrual
cycles, fertility, and hormone patterns. But behind the health insights, many users
didn’t realise how much data was being collected, or who had access to it.
The turning point came in 2021, when the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
fined Flo Health, the world’s most downloaded period tracking app, for misleading
users and sharing sensitive health data with third parties.
Things didn’t stop there.
● In 2024, Flo Health faced a class action lawsuit in Canada, where thousands
of women alleged their private information had been shared without consent.
● In 2025, the company was hit with a $56 million fine following new
investigations into ongoing data privacy violations (Reuters, FTC, CBC).
After the reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022, fear around menstrual data sharing
escalated. Many women realised that their cycle data could be used against them in
legal or political contexts, and began deleting their apps en masse.
A 2025 University of Cambridge report confirmed these concerns, calling menstrual
data “a goldmine for advertisers.” It revealed that several popular period apps were
using personal health information to target users with ads or sell insights to third
parties. What began as a tool for empowerment had turned into a system of surveillance.
Today, most period tracking apps are venture-capital-backed businesses, designed
to maximise returns, not necessarily protect users. Reports from The Independent and PMC found that many of these companies are founded and funded by men, shaping a model where women’s data becomes the product. It raises an important question:
When did it become acceptable to build health technology around extraction rather than care?
Women deserve technology that respects autonomy, privacy, and dignity, not
platforms built on surveillance or monetisation of intimate data.
A new movement in women’s health tech is emerging, one that prioritises ethical
design, transparency, and data sovereignty. Women are demanding apps that keep information stored privately on their devices, not uploaded to corporate clouds or shared with third parties. They want solutions built by women, for women, alongside allies who share the same values.
At 28X, we believe; Your period data is private, your body is not a business model
and every woman, everywhere deserves access to safe, reliable health tools.
The next era of women’s health technology must put ethics before extraction, giving
control back to the people it was meant to serve.
Sources:
BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cmj6j3d8xjjo
TheGuardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/28/why-us-woman-are-
deleting-their-period-tracking-apps
CambridgeUniversity: https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/menstrual-tracking-ap
p-data-is-a-gold-mine-for-advertisers-that-risks-womens-safety-report
TheIndependent: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/period-tracker-apps-priv
acy-data-b2805419.html
Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/google-flo
-health-pay-56-million-period-tracking-app-privacy-case-2025-09-25/
FTC: https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/cases-proceedings/192-3133-flo-heal
th-inc
CBC: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/flo-health-privacy-class-a
ction-1.7137600
PMC: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10839505/
.svg)
