According to new research, some apps period tracking Facebook highly personal information about the women who use them
The research team from the United Kingdom revealed that some apps, such as MIA Fem and Maya, send information to Facebook , such as period dates, symptoms, contraceptive methods used by women and more.
Most women use these apps either to track their menstrual cycle or to help them find the right days to conceive a child. There are many such apps on Google Play . The Indian app Maya has over 5 million downloads. The app MIA Fem: Ovulation Calculator claims to have over 2 million users worldwide.
Sending personal information to Facebook is done through Facebook's Software Development Kit (SDK). This helps app developers integrate specific features and collect user data so that Facebook can serve targeted ads.
Every time a woman opens the Maya app, Facebook is automatically updated. At the same time, the app sends the information before the woman clicks to agree to the app's privacy policy.
The Maya app asks women to report how they're feeling, what symptoms they're having, whether they're using any contraception, and more . There's also a section where women keep their own notes, sort of like a diary . However, the app doesn't use this information carefully. Instead, it sends it to Facebook, which will show ads with different products to each woman based on her needs .
The operators of the MIA Fem application have requested the deletion of all material that has been released and accuses the application of sending users' personal data to Facebook.
On the other hand, Plackal Tech, which owns Maya, stated that the app does not share women's personal or medical data with Facebook or any other company.
“The Ad SDK [Facebook's software development kit] helps us earn revenue by serving ads that our users can avoid,” the company said.
He also said that all the data Maya requests is necessary for the application to function properly. “Predicting information about menstrual cycles is complex and depends on thousands of variables.” The developers argue that all the information they request is necessary in order to make the predictions correctly.
For its part, Facebook said it gets information from apps but requires app developers to inform users about the data being sent to the social networking platform
A spokesperson for the platform said that unnecessary information, such as Social Security Numbers, passwords, emails, phone numbers and other sensitive personal data, is detected and deleted.
The practices of these apps raise concerns about the privacy of users. These apps handle very personal data, which most women would not give if they knew it was being sent to third-party companies. In addition, many times, the apps have lengthy texts describing their terms, as a result of which many users do not even read them.
Developers use this technique for exactly this reason: to reduce the chances of the user reading and agreeing without really knowing what the application is doing.
Furthermore, another question arises: Is Facebook sending this information to another company? How many people actually have access to this highly personal information?
All of this needs to be taken into account and measures taken to protect user privacy. Apps should be vetted before release and removed from the Play Store if there is a security.
