EXPLORING FEMTECH: INVESTIGATING CLUE AND PRIVACY CONCERNS AMONG MENSTRUATORS

FemTech is a booming subset of mHealth applications that was worth $51 billion in 2021 (Stewart, 2022b). FemTech largely focuses on menstruation, pregnancy, and fertility tracking. As with any technology, it comes with privacy and security risks for users, but these risks are more acute due to the sensitive nature of the data being collected. While privacy and security shortcomings have been highlighted for years, concerns were discussed widely in the United States after the Supreme Court released its Dobbs v. Jackson decision on June 24, 2022, which overturned Roe v. Wade, a 1973 decision that protected abortion as a constitutional right and limited states’ abilities to place restrictions on abortions. With abortion no longer a constitutional right, many states have outlawed or heavily restricted the procedure, and individuals expressed concern about their digital data being used in investigations as it has been in select previous cases (e.g., State of Indiana v. Purvi Patel, 2015; State of Mississippi v. Latice Fisher, 2018; The State of Nebraska v. Celeste Burgess, 2023; The State of Nebraska v. Jessica Burgess, 2023). While Big Tech has been scrutinized for turning user data over to law enforcement, many have more heavily questioned the protections offered by period tracking app companies due to the abundant amount of health data these companies possess about their users (e.g., Basu, 2022; Bradley et al., 2022; Cole, 2022). These apps have historically fallen short in protections for their user data in general (e.g., Beilinson, 2020; Developer of Popular Women’s Fertility-Tracking App Settles FTC Allegations That It Misled Consumers About the Disclosure of Their Health Data, 2021; Quintin, 2017). Clue is one of the most popular FemTech apps with millions of downloads across the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, and the company has spoken out widely about their privacy protections in the wake of the Dobbs v. Jackson decision (‎Clue Period Tracker & Calendar, n.d.; Clue Period Tracker & Calendar, n.d.; Clue’s Response to Roe vs Wade Decision, 2022). This research presents a forensic analysis of Clue on both iOS and Android after two months of data population, finding that some user-entered data was available in the app cache or .db-wal files on both iOS and Android but was entirely erased after the deletion of the app on the phones. This research also presents results from a survey of 31 menstruators in the United States, finding that online privacy in general is a concern for many users, and most find it unacceptable for period tracking applications to share user health data with advertisers or law enforcement.