Malki, lisa;
Kaleva, Ina;
Patel, Dilisha;
Warner, Mark;
Abu-Salma, Ruba;
(2024)
Exploring Privacy Practices of Female mHealth Apps in a Post-Roe World.
In:
Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’24).
(pp. pp. 1-24).
ACM (Association for Computing Machinery)
(In press).
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Abstract
Mobile apps which support women’s health have developed rapidly alongside the increasing de-stigmatisation of female reproductive wellbeing. However, the ubiquity of these apps has advanced the practice of intimate surveillance and the commodification of sensitive user data. While the overturning of Roe v. Wade has prompted reflection on the privacy and safety implications of female mobile health (mHealth) apps, the privacy practices of these apps have yet to be thoroughly examined in a post-Roe world. We investigated the privacy practices of 20 popular female mHealth apps, combining a thematic analysis of Data safety sections and privacy policies with a privacy-focused usability inspection. Our findings revealed problematic practices, including inconsistencies across privacy policy content and privacy-related app features, flawed consent and data deletion mechanisms, and covert gathering of sensitive data. We present recommendations for improving privacy practices, and call for a dedicated focus not only on user privacy, but also safety.
| Type: | Proceedings paper |
|---|---|
| Title: | Exploring Privacy Practices of Female mHealth Apps in a Post-Roe World |
| Event: | CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '24) |
| Location: | Honolulu, HI, USA |
| Dates: | 11th-16th May 2024 |
| ISBN-13: | 979-8-4007-0330-0/24/05 |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1145/3613904.3642521 |
| Publisher version: | https://dl.acm.org/ |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | Digital health, mobile health, FemTech, women’s health, privacy, safety |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Computer Science |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10188933 |
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