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Markkula Center for Applied Ethics

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These Period Tracker Apps say They put Privacy First. Here’s What we Found.

Irina Raicu, director of the Internet Ethics Program, quoted by Consumer Reports.

Irina Raicu, director of the Internet Ethics Program, spoke with Consumer Reports about the risks of data collected by period tracking apps.

The concern, says Raicu, is that prosecutors will be able to use data from period tracking apps (or other online data) showing that someone was getting a period at one point—and then later wasn’t getting it—as evidence suggesting that they may have had an abortion. 

“There are valid concerns that with the laws that now incentivize people to sue other citizens, that there might be ways [for private citizens] to get this information from period tracking apps,” Raicu says.

 

Irina Raicu, director of the Internet Ethics Program, quoted by Consumer Reports.

Ethics
media, internet