Privacy’s Empty Promises: Comparing Health App Privacy Policies and Advertisements and Data Sharing Practices
Saturday, October 14, 2023
9:00 AM – 10:15 AM ET
Location: Essex C (Fourth Floor)
In the wake of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, the media turned a critical eye to menstruation-tracking smartphone applications (apps) and the reproductive data these tools contain. Though several news outlets implored users to delete these apps in anticipation of shifting reproductive rights, many consumers instead migrated to apps that promised more robust privacy protections. Unfortunately, not all privacy promises held up to scrutiny. A growing body of literature suggests a disconnect between health apps’ privacy promises in policies and advertisements and privacy practices, even in jurisdictions with more robust privacy protections than the United States. This presentation discusses this phenomenon generally as it applies to health apps and specifically as it applies to menstruation tracking. It then presents the results of a study assessing whether a subset of Apple iOS menstruation-tracking apps engage in privacy practices consistent with privacy promises and analyzes those results in the context of the evolving post-Dobbs legal landscape. Though primarily focused on menstruation tracking, this presentation contributes to a broader academic discourse across disciplines about the importance of privacy, the growing role of consumer technology in the provision of health care, and whether law matters on the Internet. These technologies provide an important case study through which to consider whether meaningful discussion and decision-making are possible in an environment where words may lack shared meaning and stakeholders are not equally situated to discern between fact and puffery. The presentation will conclude with policy implications for reproductive rights and beyond.