Companies Collect Intimate Menstruation Data from Millions of People — and Sometimes Share It

The sensitive information entered into period-tracking apps enables reproductive research at an unprecedented scale, though it can also reach advertisers without women's permission.

By Molly Glick
Jan 13, 2022 9:45 PMJan 14, 2022 6:58 PM
clue photo of the app
(Credit: Clue)

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This story is the second in a two-part series about digital birth control. Read part 1 here.


After businesses capitalized on an underserved market for women's digital health products, a small but booming "femtech" industry has emerged within the last decade. These include a variety of menstruation-tracking apps that use artificial intelligence to predict future periods and dates of ovulation. Among these apps, only Clue and Natural Cycles have been cleared by the FDA to be advertised as birth control.

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