{"id":14569,"date":"2024-03-08T13:02:51","date_gmt":"2024-03-08T13:02:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/TheNextWeb=1404668"},"modified":"2024-03-08T13:02:51","modified_gmt":"2024-03-08T13:02:51","slug":"experts-call-for-stricter-femtech-laws-to-safeguard-womens-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/?p=14569","title":{"rendered":"Experts call for stricter femtech laws to safeguard women\u2019s data"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s hard to imagine more intimate data than that collected by female technologies or \u201cfemtech.\u201d These apps and devices not only monitor women\u2019s menstrual cycles but also record their sexual encounters, orgasms, and pregnancies.<\/span><\/p>\n

A new study shows that many femtech companies do not adequately safeguard such sensitive information. Some may even intentionally leak personal data to third parties.<\/span><\/p>\n

The research, led by <\/span>Dr Maryam Mehrnezhad at the Royal Holloway University in London, is part of a four-year investigation into cybersecurity, privacy, trust, and bias issues in the femtech sector.<\/span><\/p>\n

Under the study, the team examined popular fertility apps, smart breast pumps, fertility trackers (such as bracelets and rings), kegel trainers, and sex toys.  The team found a range of \u201cinappropriate\u201d security and privacy practices \u2014 many do not present valid consent, do not give extra protection to sensitive data, and track users.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Mehrnezhad told TNW that companies who compromise the data privacy of their users in this way \u201c<\/span>may do it unintentionally\u201d or as a \u201cdeliberate attempt for commercial purposes.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

In 2021, period-tracking app Flo<\/span> settled<\/span><\/a> a class action lawsuit over allegations it shared users\u2019 health data with Facebook. The judge found Flo guilty of informing Facebook of in-app activity \u2014 such as when a user was having their period. The social media platform would then use this information to display targeted ads.  <\/span><\/p>\n

One 2022 <\/span>study<\/span><\/a> found that 84% of period tracker apps share data with third parties. While most of this information is sold for commercial gain, sensitive health data could be used for more nefarious means. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have identified multiple threat actors interested in fertility and sex information,\u201d said <\/span>Mehrnezhad. These could be cyber-criminals, insurance companies, or even your employer. <\/span><\/p>\n

Legal grey area<\/b><\/h2>\n

Currently, femtech sits in a legal grey area. These devices and apps are not considered \u201cmedical,\u201d so they fall outside the purview of healthcare regulations. However, there are no specific laws in the EU or UK covering them either. <\/span><\/p>\n

The closest bet are two sets of regulations within the EU\u2019s sweeping data privacy law, the GDPR, which deal with general data protection and medical and health regulation. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, as shown in our work, alone or combined they fail to protect the user from malicious practices,\u201d explains <\/span>Mehrnezhad.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

The researchers recommend stronger regulations and more industry oversight, including setting up entities to guide femtech developers toward best practice and ethical decision making. Currently nothing like this exists. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe that the medical and health space is in need of domain-specific and sectoral regulations with attention to the needs of marginalised user groups such as women and those with physical and mental ability limitations,\u201d said <\/span>Mehrnezhad. <\/span><\/p>\n

Historically, women\u2019s health has taken a back seat to men\u2019s \u2014 leaving a<\/span> persistent gender gap<\/span><\/a> in data, research, and law. <\/span>Some 70% of femtech <\/span>founders<\/span><\/a> are women, many of whom developed their products to improve access to accurate health insights.<\/span><\/p>\n

While research shows that more ac<\/span>countability and regulation is needed, <\/span>Mehrnezhad stresses that providing users with secure, private, and safe femtech products should be the ultimate goal for all parties.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope to see better collaborative efforts acros<\/span>s the stakeholders to enable citizens to use femtech solutions to improve the quality of their lives without any risk and fear,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The good news is that some efforts in policymaking are afoot that could address the issue, including the creation of a <\/span>European Health Data Space<\/span><\/a>, that <\/span>supports individuals to take control of their own health data.<\/span><\/p>\n

For now, <\/span>Mehrnezhad<\/span> recommends that users of femtech apps and devices should pay special attention to privacy policies, opt-out of data tracking and unnecessary permissions, and <\/span>uninstall all apps they are not regularly engaging with. <\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s hard to imagine more intimate data than that collected by female technologies or \u201cfemtech.\u201d These apps and devices not only monitor women\u2019s menstrual cycles but also record their sexual encounters, orgasms,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14569"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}