The company was sharing information that for instance, people like you, when they use the app and you say, “Hey, my period started,” that information could have been shared with Facebook and Google and other companies. I had that happen when I was about your age. Yes, so you don’t have spots end up places you don’t want them to. I like that it tells me when I’m about to start so I don’t get like any, in the school or anything. And, yeah, it has been very amazing, that app. I really don’t read the policy apps - the privacy. When I started, like, my period I talked to my friends, and they recommended me the Flo app. They’ll say, “Oh, you have that? That’s gross.” You can get bothered a lot, like bullying. She told me that the boys at school bullied her and other girls about their periods. When we spoke in September she was 14 years old - about to turn 15. Because of her age, we’re only using Maria Jose’s first name.
Maria Jose is one of those many Flo app users. Tens of millions around the world use the Flo app. It was alleged that between 20, Flo Health, the maker of the Flo Period and Ovulation Tracker app, shared that type of personal health data with companies including Google and Facebook.Īnd that data sharing may have affected a lot of people. To make the app’s predictions work, people submit all sorts of really personal information about their bodies - when they were sexually intimate, whether they had sex related problems and even when they experienced premenstrual symptoms like bloating or acne or depression. Like many of the other period tracking apps, people use Flo to monitor their periods to see if they’re late, to know whether it’s prime time to try to get pregnant, to plan when the best dates for a beach vacation might be, or if they’re a little on the older side, to measure how their menstrual cycles change as menopause comes into the picture. So, in case you don’t use one of these period trackers, they’ve become pretty common. They’ll call our office line which is a voice line and takes a lot of messages. When people of an app learn that their data is going to one of these large tech companies that they were not aware of when they signed up, it makes them very nervous and I think that’s fair. When people found out that a period tracking app called Flo may have shared intimate data about their bodies without their permission, a lot of calls came into her group’s privacy hotline. Pam Dixon is the executive director of World Privacy Forum, an organization that provides research and guidance related to all sorts of privacy issues. This was a huge problem for them and brought them great shame.
Kate Kaye, reporter, scriptwriter and hostįor some people - for some women - this was a violation not just of privacy, but of spiritual beliefs, and religious beliefs. It’s already forced two companies to destroy their algorithms. And that was just one indication that the FTC is getting tougher on tech firms.
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The settlement soon led to a controversial enforcement policy update that could affect countless health and fitness app makers. But some believed it was just another example of a feeble approach to enforcing the agency’s authority. When the FTC alleged that period tracking app maker Flo Health shared people’s private health information with Facebook and Google without permission, its settlement with the company required some changes in how it gathers and uses people’s data. And some worry getting too aggressive or political could backfire. But party-line votes among FTC commissioners signal heightened internal partisanship at the agency, known historically for rising above the political fray. Sometimes referred to as weak and toothless in past years, the FTC is sharpening its fangs under the tough new leadership of Chairwoman Lina Khan, who has already guided policy changes that could have a big impact on how the agency addresses privacy and antitrust abuses of data-hungry tech. Kill Your Algorithm is a two-part Digiday podcast special exploring the implications of a more aggressive Federal Trade Commission.