“I don’t think it needs to be political”: Privacy Experiences and Concerns of FemHealth App Users in the United States

FemHealth apps have rapidly developed, offering innovative opportunities to track users’ menstrual cycles, fertility, pregnancy, and other aspects of sexual and reproductive health. However, such apps collect a significant amount of sensitive user health data, posing privacy risks to users. In this paper, we conducted 14 in-depth semistructured interviews with current and past users of FemHealth apps in the US to examine their privacy experiences and concerns. We found that participants were concerned about a wider range of risks than was found in prior user research about FemTech, including criminalization related to abortion or contraceptive access; emotional distress related to social stigma; third-party data sharing; and targeted advertising based on processing sensitive health data. Some participants acknowledged that FemHealth apps posed privacy risks and potential harms to users in general but were not necessarily concerned about their own privacy due to privilege (e.g., living in a state with strong reproductive health rights). However, all participants agreed that user privacy and data protection in FemHealth apps should be considered a fundamental right, not subject to legal discourse in specific locales. Most participants felt unsure about the effectiveness of existing data protection regulations and their interplay with anti-abortion laws. Participants suggested several ways to mitigate privacy risks, including disclosures and controls, back-end technical protections, behavioral strategies, and policy improvements. We provide recommendations for extending practical and policy-based privacy protections of sexual and reproductive health data collected by FemHealth apps.