As Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House, millions of women are questioning what this means for them, or more specifically, what it is. it means for their bodies.
last week Election victory of the Republican candidate, google A search for “period tracking apps” was popular.
Top queries include: “Should I delete my period tracking app?” and ‘The most private period tracking app’.
Some women are questioning it privacy of their ovulation and fertility data for fear of that it could be a weapon against them Under a second Trump administration.
According to a study published by Federal Trade CommissionWritten by Duke University researchers and professors, period tracking apps “track and collect a lot of sensitive data, including menstrual cycle data, pregnancy, sex life and location, that can be used to detect or infer miscarriages.”
Privacy concerns are “was exacerbated by Roe v. In the post-Wade eralaw enforcement can now request fertility-related records from period tracking app companies evidence of crimes”, the report adds.
Two minor searches by people googling the privacy of period-tracking apps were related to the Oura ring: a Finnish wearable health device that tracks body temperature and sleep duration as well as blood oxygen levels.
A feature that has also been popular with users is the ‘cycle view’, which includes period prediction tracking and potential pregnancy updates.
While our women have easily adopted it as a powerful tool a health systems that often bring them downthat same demographic is now worried they revealed too much of themselves to health technology companies.
In fact, the wearables market is expected to increase rapidly in the coming years, from a market value of $72 billion in 2023 to over $186 billion in 2030, among others. the apple, Samsungand Garmin.
Ours is growing rapidly.
Today, more than 2.5 million people wear one of the Finnish company’s titanium rings — priced between $299 and $499 — and annual sales are expected to double to about $500 million this year.
The company’s CEO, Tom Hale, knows that his customers are worried about oversharing. He said that their private data is just that: Private.
Speaking luck in Web Summit In Lisbon, Hale said: “We basically put a feature in the product that allows you to selectively delete your data from the app. And we did that at the request of users who requested it.”
Hale noted that Oura, like other healthcare brands, is subject to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which protects people’s medical information and limits the extent to which their data can be shared without patient consent.
As such, HIPAA authorizes federal governments and agencies to request information from health care providers for legal or public health reasons; The Trump administration may enforce abortion regulations.
When asked about this point luckHale said Oura would “do what our customers ask us to do and what they want us to do,” including actions like making all data completely anonymous.
In addition, Hale said Oura’s policy is to notify users if any of their data is being shared, giving women the option to delete all of their historical data if they feel the need.
Oura added: “As a company based in Finland, Oura complies with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which means we have technical and organizational safeguards in place to keep members’ data safe and secure to the high standards required by European privacy regulations.”
Reality or rhetoric
According to Hale, the question of whether or not to delete cycle data is a particular problem for Oura members, as young women have taken it very easily.
In fact, women in their 20s are the brand’s fastest growing segment, and that number has doubled in the past year.
36% of women who use the brand are between the ages of 25 and 34, according to Hale, with another 23% between the ages of 35 and 44.
Part of this is due to the ring shape factor, Hale explains, because women enjoy the jewelry element of wearables.
But he continued: “The other factor, of course, is the general movement away from patriarchy, in many ways, in medicine. It’s because they’re gaslighting someone who’s going through something and they’re like, “Well, yeah, it’ll be fine, just calm your stress,” or because they’re worried that doctors are overprescribing birth control. take regularly
“There are all these kinds of things where women are saying, ‘You know what? My body, my choice. I’m going to own my health experience and I’m going to do it independently of patriarchy.’ Oura, oddly enough, has become a symbol of that.”
While Hale wants to make it easier for women to delete their data from the Oura platform, she questioned it whether it is a reaction against a political rhetoric to a real threat.
In addition, location data may raise further evidentiary concerns rather than period information, he added, that data deletion should be “quite enough” to reassure users.
“I don’t know of any cases where anyone’s biometric data is disputed or used against (people),” Hale added. “It will probably be a statement about the political climate. In this way, it is important to make this risk zero if we can.”
Of course, Hale and Oura’s data privacy code isn’t just for people who want to keep their cycle information to themselves.
“As a healthcare company, our job is to serve you on behalf of your health,” Hale said. “We are not there to serve insurers, we are not there to serve advertisers. We are not here to serve our ecosystem because we don’t have an ecosystem.
“Our goal is just your health. I think the reality is the only way you can measure that is trust, and trust comes from the fact that we get it more often than most wearables. We get it right, like, ‘I think I trust this thing,’ and that’s really powerful.” is”.
