According to Privacy International, their test revealed that up to 36 menstruation apps send user data to Facebook. The transferred information involved birth control methods or even when the users had sex.
Privacy International, an organization from the United Kingdom, works on studies about privacy on the Internet. This time, researchers decided to examine what kind of information menstruation apps share to social media.
As it turned out, 61% of tested applications automatically send sensitive data to Facebook the moment the app launches. It does not matter if the user of the application has a Facebook account or not, is logged into it or not.
The transferred data allowed Facebook to assume a great deal of information: a gender, how does she feel, when the user is menstruating, if she is trying (or avoiding) to get pregnant or what kind of contraception method she is using.
The collected data allows i.a. to calculate the length of the menstrual cycle, including fertile days, turn out to be extremely needed by Zuckerberg’s company.
How applications collect the data?
Sharing information happens via the SDK (the Facebook Software Development Kit) tool; which was created to improve the functioning of the application. The data they transfer to Facebook is sent to the advertisers. As a result, they can provide users with even more personalized ads.
According to Privacy International, most applications gathered and exploited users’ data without their consent, even if they did not have an account on the social network.
These include Maya, My Period Tracker, Period Tracker, Ovulation Calculator, and Linchpin Health.
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