Menstrual Cycle Tracking Apps: An Applied Combined Medical and Data Privacy Scoring

Today, many menstruating individuals track their cycles with mobile apps. These cycle apps use a lot of highly sensitive personal data. The goal of this study is to evaluate current cycle apps based on data privacy and medical criteria. First, a market analysis of currently available apps was conducted. Second, a scoring system was developed based on Digital Health application (Digitale Gesundheitsanwendungen, DiGA in German) guidelines, Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS), and other resources. A total of 18 apps were evaluated. The final scores (range from 0 to 1) ranged from 0.12 (worst result) to 0.64 (best result). The average "data privacy score" was 0.4, and the average "medical score" was 0.11. Only six apps received any points in the medical part of the scoring. A clear weakness of many tested apps was the issue of data minimization. 89% of the apps had permissions that were not necessary for this type of health app.