Period tracker privacy: what to check

Before entering a period date, open the app’s privacy information and check what it collects, where the information goes and how you can stop using the service. Look for clear explanations of purposes, retention and sharing.

Use these questions with any cycle tracking app, before adding personal health information. Where the answer isn’t clear, write that down and ask the provider.

Read the policy beside the store label

Find the policy linked from the app’s own listing or settings. Check which organisation and product it covers, its date, and the contact for privacy questions. Look for collection, recipients, retention and your choices.

Write each answer in ordinary words. If all you can copy is “we value your privacy”, keep looking. The ICO calls for concise, accessible privacy information; ask the provider to explain vague wording before relying on it.

For example: “Does turning off backup remove an existing cloud copy, or only stop future backups?”

App-store privacy or data-safety labels can help before download. The ICO describes their value for transparency and the confusion inconsistent wording can cause. Compare the label with the full policy, looking for consistent answers about health information, identifiers and sharing. If they differ, ask which explanation covers the version and features you intend to use.

Choose what to record

Start with what you plan to type: perhaps period dates, flow or personal notes. Then check what comes from your device or connected services. Ask about device identifiers, location and access to contacts or photos. Which items are required, and which can you leave out?

The FTC recommends limiting collection and permissions to what an app needs. Decide how much you want to record; getting started with cycle tracking can help you choose.

Trace phone, cloud and backup copies

Ask whether entries stay in a database on your phone, go to the provider’s servers, or are held in both places. What changes if you enable backup or connect another service? Do device backups include the app’s data?

The FTC advises developers to understand where data goes, including responsibilities for cloud storage. Ask which copies the provider’s explanations cover. Request separate details of protection on the phone, during transfer and in any cloud copy. A screen lock does not answer all three questions.

Check how sign-in works

Does basic logging need an email address, telephone number or linked account? If there is an account-free option, ask what identifier the service uses instead. Also ask how access is recovered if you change phones.

Health information combined with mobile identifiers can identify someone without a name. Ask what “anonymous” means in the provider’s actual design.

Identify recipients and embedded software

Look for named recipients or categories such as hosting providers, analytics services and advertisers. Ask what each receives and why. Check whether optional sharing starts switched off and what happens if you decline it.

Check the purposes and recipients of sharing even if the provider says it doesn’t sell information. The ICO calls for explanations of who data is shared with. Ask separately about advertising and service delivery.

An SDK, or software development kit, is software a developer can build into an app. Embedded SDKs can support analytics or functions such as logins, involving storage of or access to information on the device.

Ask which SDKs are used, what they send and to whom. Does analytics record only a technical event, or could it include the contents of an entry? Can you decline optional analytics while keeping your record? Check each tool individually: the presence of an SDK alone does not tell you what it collects.

Check export and deletion separately

• Export: ask which entries are included, what format you receive and whether you can select a date range. For an appointment, decide what to share before producing the file. Preparing healthcare appointment notes can help you choose the relevant details.
• Deletion: ask how to remove individual entries or the whole record, whether an account needs closing, and what happens to backups and previously shared copies. Request the timescale and any exceptions.

The ICO says retention periods should be explained, and the FTC recommends planning for account closure. Do not assume uninstalling is the provider’s deletion process. Check which export and removal options the app offers.

Protect access on your phone

Could someone using your phone open the app, read notifications or find exported files? Ask about a separate app lock, notification previews and recovery after a lost device. If there is an account, find out how to end access from the missing phone.

The UK regulators’ mobile-app safety guide recommends protecting the phone with a password and keeping apps updated. Review the settings on the device you use, especially if you share it, even when you’re comfortable with the provider’s data practices. Avoid testing privacy controls with information you would be uncomfortable exposing.

Choose what a partner can see

If sharing is offered, ask exactly what it includes: a selected summary, past entries or future updates. Can you preview it? Can you stop access without deleting your own record? Ask what happens to information already received when sharing ends.

Discuss what you want to share before sending the invitation, including whether you want to give access to your whole record. The FTC recommends private defaults for optional social sharing.

Read health-data law claims carefully

Do not assume a consumer tracker has the same HIPAA coverage as your doctor’s records. The FTC’s mobile health app tool explains that HIPAA likely doesn’t apply to health information in consumer apps that are not offered by a covered healthcare entity or its business associate.

The FTC’s Health Breach Notification Rule guidance describes notification duties for covered organisations following breaches of unsecured, identifiable health information. A breach can include unauthorised disclosure as well as hacking. This is general context, not a determination of which laws apply to an app or your situation.

Ask how the provider would tell you about an incident.

Apply the same checks to Veya

Veya is pre-launch. Entries are designed to stay in a local database on your phone, and you don’t need an account. If you want to move your record to a new phone through cloud backup, you can choose to link a Google account on Android or use Sign in with Apple on iOS; Veya receives only the email address, to recognise the account, and your cycle data isn’t shared with Google or Apple. The partner summary and anonymous community are optional and use an anonymous ID.

There are no ads, every feature is free, and Veya doesn’t sell data. You’ll be able to download everything at any time, as a JSON file that can be restored into Veya on another phone without an account and a CSV for spreadsheets, and to delete everything.

Veya’s Privacy Policy is now published. Check its answers against the same list, especially on service providers, retention and what happens to cloud copies after deletion. Account and data deletion explains exactly what each deletion step removes.

To see how some widely used trackers answer these questions, with a source for each answer, read how Veya compares with other apps.