To the CEOs of the Femtech industry: Glow, Clue by Biowink, Flo, BabyCenter, MyCalendar, MyDays, Trakher, Ovia, Leap Fitness Group, Simple Design, Maya by Plackal Tech, MIA by Mobapp Development Limited, Linchpin Health, Pinkbird, Period Tracker by GP International LLC, MIA by Mobapp Development Limited, and Mi Calendario by Grupo Familia.

We ask you to empower women and not put them at risk – stop selling data about women’s periods or fertility. Please protect pregnant women from being policed by state officials who could buy women’s data to criminalize and punish women who get abortions.

As owners of the leading women’s health apps, especially period / ovulation / fertility management apps, you have an opportunity - and an obligation - to protect women in post-Roe America and beyond.

Now that Roe was struck down, the penetration of your technology could put millions of women at risk, if they seek to get an abortion, and if the data they give you is sold into the wrong  hands.

We demand you ensure your femtech apps and the data you collect does not expose women to political consequences—such as women being exposed to surveillance or threats of attacks and physical harm. 

Many femtech apps lack basic data privacy standards, and fail to guarantee the safety of massive troves of health-related data being collected. In Privacy International’s 2019 analysis of 36 menstruation apps, researchers found that more than 60% of the apps tested were transferring data to third parties. The data shared included sensitive data.

You are huge and getting bigger every year. Your sector received funding of close to $800 million in FY 2019-20, and is estimated to grow to a $50 billion USD market by 2025. With Roe overturned, it is scarier than ever that your sector doesn’t respect consumer rights. Your selling women’s data may have grave consequences. 

Women in the USA could go to jail because of your data getting into the wrong hands.

Most app users are unaware of your business models and your lack of adequate privacy policies. They do not know that in the US for example, an average pregnant woman’s data can be sold for as little as $1.50. You MUST effectively protect women’s right to privacy. 

We can no longer risk the data women give you, being further shared with third parties or ‘data brokers’, who collect, aggregate, and combine personal information about women and create a digital profile on them.

Whether the law requires it or not, we ask you to abide by all the strong protections in the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) worldwide, especially in countries like the USA where abortion can be criminalized. We also ask you to respect the US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), even if your company is outside of the jurisdiction of this law.

Act now! Protect women! Stop selling their data!