Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn citizens’ constitutional right to abortion in the United States, there has been concern about data protection, particularly in the 13 states that have already moved to make abortion illegal.
Gina Neff, an Oxford professor of technology and society, tweeted the day after the ruling, “Right now, and I mean right now, delete every digital trace of any menstrual tracking.”
Her message has received over 200,000 likes and has been retweeted 54,000 times.
Period trackers are used to help women predict when their next period will be, and they are frequently used to either prevent or attempt to conceive.
There are concerns that if law enforcement obtains access to the data, the apps could be used to punish those seeking termination.
Like a number of other high-profile apps, Natural Cycles, which is billed as a digital form of contraception, insisted last month that all the data it stored was “safe and will be protected”.
However, it told the BBC on Monday that it is working on “creating a completely anonymous experience for users.”
“The goal is for no one – not even Natural Cycles – to be able to identify the user,” it said.
That implies that encryption is being considered. Speaking of which, how about messaging services – that private, confidential exchange between two close friends?
Security experts and privacy advocates generally prefer the use of end-to-end encryption messaging services such as WhatsApp and Signal (Telegram is not by default encrypted, but it can be) to discuss sensitive issues.