Security Experts Commnets on the News: Sex lives of menstruation app users have been shared with Facebook
Ever used a menstruation app? Some of them have been sharing the details of your sexual life and your medical history with Facebook.
Read our research: https://t.co/6bEz2c9ln4 pic.twitter.com/ujhkNyywry— Privacy International (@privacyint) September 9, 2019
From sexual activity to general health, it’s inevitable that menstruation apps will request a whole host of sensitive information in order for them provide the most accurate service possible. As a result, they collect an awful lot of valuable data – and there could have serious consequences if this information is managed or stored incorrectly. Many people will be understandably wary about Facebook using its Software Development Kit (SDK) to allow app developers to share customer data with the social network giant – especially given the company’s recent track record of poor data management. However, this concern should also be extended to the app developers themselves, who have a responsibility not to share data with third parties without the knowledge and consent of their customers. With PI revealing that 61% of the menstruation apps they tested shared data automatically with Facebook – even when customers don’t have a Facebook account – it is evident that this is not the case – which is incredibly alarming. We would advise consumers to carefully review their security and privacy settings in order to make sure that their data isn’t being leaked to third parties.