Period tracker app users trade privacy for tech

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2025-06-12 03:00

New Zealand

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Popular apps used to track menstrual cycles and related 'symptoms' can hold years of data on users' health and private lives, which might be usable by third parties for research, commercial, and other purposes. NZ researchers asked 13 app users about their views of the risks, finding about half considered their data to be mostly risk-free, while others considered lack of privacy an inevitable tradeoff for accessing tracking tools. Their concerns included reproductive rights issues like the overturning of Roe vs Wade in the US and the potential for similar changes to happen Aotearoa, with one participant noting worries around not having rangatiratanga over her data.

Expert Reaction

These comments have been collated by the Science Media Centre to provide a variety of expert perspectives on this issue. Feel free to use these quotes in your stories. Views expressed are the personal opinions of the experts named. They do not represent the views of the SMC or any other organisation unless specifically stated.

Anna Friedlander, PhD candidate at the University of Waikato and lead author of this paper, comments:

The range of ways in which participants in this study perceived risk shows how difficult it can be to understand and mitigate risk at an individual level. It shows how important it is to have strong protections for our intimate health data.

"That some participants contextualised risk with respect to overseas changes like the American overturning of Roe v Wade illustrates that we are living in a globally connected world. On the other hand, the fact that some participants referenced local legislation and concepts like mana motuhake and rangatiratanga shows that it is vital that data protection is locally relevant to menstruators in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Last updated: 09 Jun 2025 9:40am

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Declared conflicts of interest Anna Friedlander is lead author of this paper.

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Lead author Anna Friedlander

Journal/
conference: Kōtuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University of Waikato

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