FTC says free fertility app shared information with third parties

The owners of free fertility app Premom have settled with users after companies including Google and marketing firms in China shared health data without their consent.

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a $200,000 settlement with Easy Healthcare, the owner of Premom.

“Premom broke its promises and compromised consumers’ privacy,” said Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

“We will vigorously enforce the health breach notification rule to protect consumer health data from exploitation,” he said in an FTC news release. “Companies collecting this information should be aware that the FTC will not tolerate violations of health privacy.”

As part of a proposed settlement, the company agreed to pay a $100,000 civil penalty and another $100,000 to Connecticut, Oregon and the District of Columbia for violating their laws.

Hundreds of thousands of users use the free app to track ovulation, periods, and other health information. The FTC said the app encourages users to provide information about their cycles, fertility and pregnancy, and to import data from other apps such as Apple Health.

It said the company shared the data without disclosing it to users for advertising purposes, obtaining their permission, or limiting how that information could be used.

“The data shared with third parties revealed highly sensitive and private details about users of Premom and an individual user’s sexual and reproductive health, parental and pregnancy status, as well as physical health conditions and status.” led to the unauthorized disclosure of other information about.” the FTC said.

The US Department of Justice filed a proposed court order on behalf of the FTC on Wednesday.

As part of that order, Easy Healthcare will be barred from sharing users’ personal health data with third parties for advertising. The FTC said it would also be necessary to obtain users’ consent before sharing health data for any other purpose and to inform consumers how their personal data would be used. The proposed order must be approved by a federal court to take effect.

Sharing private fertility information has become a concern since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

CBS News reported that Easy Healthcare did not commit wrongdoing.

“Rather, this is a settlement to avoid the time and expense of litigation and enable us to put this matter behind us and focus on you, our users,” the company wrote in a statement on the Premon website. “Be assured that we never sell any information about users’ health to third parties, nor do we share it for advertising purposes.”

While the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, better known as HIPAA, protects medical privacy in health care settings, that doesn’t carry over to the information tech companies provide, CBS News reported.

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