Menstrual tracking app users cautioned about risks

Women who tracked their menstrual cycle using smartphone apps have been warned about the privacy and safety risks of doing so.

A report from the University of Cambridge's Minderoo Centre said the apps were a "gold mine" for consumer profiling and collecting information.

Academics cautioned that in the wrong hands, the data could result in health insurance "discrimination" and risks to job prospects.

The apps collect information on everything from exercise, diet and medication to sexual preferences, hormone levels and contraception use.

Academics at the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy, an independent team of researchers at the university, said this data could give insights into people's health and their reproductive choices.

The report added that many women used the apps when they were trying to get pregnant.

Researchers said data on who is pregnant, and who wants to be, was some of the "most sought-after information in digital advertising" as it led to a shift in shopping patterns.

"Cycle tracking apps (CTA) are a lucrative business because they provide the companies behind the apps with access to extremely valuable and fine-grained user data," they said.

"CTA data is not only commercially valuable and shared with an inextricable net of third parties (thereby making intimate user information exploitable for targeted advertising), but it also poses severe security risks for users."

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Source: BBC News, 11 June 2025