If you’re using period apps to track your monthly cycle, you might want to check where your private information is being stored.
A new report from UK-based advocacy group Privacy International has found that certain period tracker apps are sharing your private information, including your sexual encounters, symptoms and contraception use with “third-party services, including Facebook.”
According to Buzzfeed, apps including MIA Fem and Maya have been sending the info via Facebook’s Software Development Kit, “which helps app developers incorporate particular features and collect user data so Facebook can show them targeted ads, among other functions.”
Maya has had more than 5 million downloads on the Google Play Store. MIA Fem, on the other hand, says it has more than 2 million users around the world. Both apps are also available via the app store – making this is an extremely widespread issue.
When questioned by Buzzfeed, Facebook said it had spoken to the app owners to discuss “possible violations” of its terms of service – including sending “sensitive information.” Privacy International also reported that Maya not only informs Facebook when you open the app, but “starts sharing some data with Facebook even before the user agrees to the app’s privacy policy.”
The report comes at a particularly tense time, considering the fallout of last year’s Facebook – Cambridge Analytica data scandal. In early 2018, it was revealed that British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica has harvested the personal data of millions of peoples’ Facebook profiles without their consent and used it for political advertising purposes.
There was also controversy surrounding this year’s popular Russian-owned FaceApp, which many speculated was using uploaded photos in ads or other forms of marketing.
If the claims of Privacy International and Buzzfeed’s reports are true, the issue could run far deeper than the information we share on our Facebook profiles, or the photos we upload to face-altering app.