As Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House, millions of women are wondering what that means for them — or, more accurately, what funds for their bodies.
In the week before Election victory of the Republican candidate, Google searches for “period tracker apps” have increased in popularity.
The most common queries include ‘Should I delete my period tracking app?’ and “The most private period tracking app”.
Some women question it privacy of ovulation and fertility data out of fear that could be a weapon against them under the second Trump administration.
According to a study published by The Federal Trade Commissionwritten by researchers and professors at Duke University, period-tracking apps “track and collect a vast amount of sensitive data, including menstrual cycle, pregnancy, sex life, and location data that can all be used to detect or infer miscarriage.”
Concern for privacy is “it worsened in the post-Roe v. Wade erasince law enforcement can now request fertility records from period tracking companies as evidence of crime“, the report adds.
The top two searches by people Googling the privacy of period tracking apps were for the Oura ring—a Finnish wearable health device that monitors everything from body temperature and sleep duration to blood oxygen levels.
One feature that has also been popular with users is ‘cycle insight’, which includes monitoring of period predictions and potential pregnancy updates.
While women readily accepted Oura as a powerful tool of ua a healthcare system that often fails themthis same demographic is now concerned that they have revealed too much of themselves health technology companies.
Indeed, the ‘wearables’ market is expected to grow rapidly in size over the next few years, from a market value of $72 billion in 2023 to over $186 billion by 2030 – led by the likes of Apple, Samsungand Garmin.
Oura grows quickly in nature.
More than 2.5 million people now wear one of the Finnish company’s titanium rings—priced at $299 to $499—and annual sales are expected to double this year to roughly $500 million.
The company’s CEO, Tom Hale, knows his customers are worried they’ve shared too much. He said their personal information is just that: private.
Speaking with Wealth on Web summit in Lisbon, Hale said, “We put a feature in the product that allows you to basically selectively delete your data from the app. And we did it at the request of users who asked for it.”
Hale noted that Oura, like other health product brands, is subject to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which protects individuals’ medical information and limits the extent to which their information can be shared without patient consent.
In addition, HIPAA allows government and federal agencies to request information from health care providers for legal or public health reasons — a cause for concern for women who wonder how far The Trump administration could enforce abortion regulations.
When asked about this issue by WealthHale said Oura will “do what our customers ask us to do”—including taking actions such as completely anonymizing all data.
On top of that, Hale said it’s Our policy to notify users if any of their data is being shared, giving women the opportunity to delete all of their history if they feel the need.
Oura added: “As a company based in Finland, Oura is GDPR compliant, which means we have technical and organizational safeguards in place to keep members’ data safe and secure to the high standards required by European data protection regulations. of privacy.”
Reality or rhetoric
Hale believes the issue of erasing cycle data is a particular problem for Our members because it has been so readily embraced by younger women.
Indeed, women in their 20s are the brand’s fastest-growing segment, and that number has more than doubled in the past year.
Those between the ages of 25 and 34 make up 36% of women who use the brand, Hale says, with a further 23% between the ages of 35 and 44.
Hale explains that this is partly due to the shape factor of the ring, with women enjoying the jewelery element of the wearables.
But he continued: “The other factor, of course, is the general shift away from patriarchy, in many forms, in medicine. Whether it’s gaslighting someone who’s going through something and they say, ‘Well, yeah, it’s going to be fine, just take it easy’ or doctors prescribing birth control because they’re worried you won’t take it regularly.
“There are all kinds of things where women say ‘You know what? My body, my choice. I will own my health experience and I will do so independent of the patriarchy.’ Oura, surprisingly, became a symbol of that.”
Although Hale wants to make it easier for women to delete data from the Oura platform, he asked whether it is a reaction to political rhetoric in relation to a real threat.
Moreover, location data may pose a greater evidentiary concern rather than period information, he added, saying that erasing data should be “pretty much enough” to appease users.
“I don’t know of any cases where someone’s biometrics have been challenged or used against (people),” Hale added. “It’s probably more of a statement about the political atmosphere. That said, it’s important to make that risk zero if we can.”
Of course, Hale and Oura’s data privacy code isn’t just for people who want to keep information about their cycle to themselves.
“As a healthcare company, our job is to serve you on behalf of your health,” Hale said. “We are not here to serve insurers, we are not here to serve advertisers. We are not here to serve our own ecosystem because we don’t have an ecosystem.
“Our purpose is exclusively your health. I think the reality is that the only way you can measure that is trust, and trust comes because we do it more often than most wearables. We get it right in such a way that you say, ‘I think I can trust this thing,’ and that’s really powerful.”
