Most of the FemTech companies offer their services globally, assisted by the global rise in smartphone usage. This means that they need to comply with a wide range of laws and regulations in different countries [5]. For assessing the consequences of this sensitive nature of FemTech data, we need to look at the diversity of global regulation – not only regarding data protection, but also concerning laws that govern women’s health, including laws around abortion.
In terms of privacy and data protection, FemTech companies must comply with different legal regimes. Some countries have specific laws that apply to health data, including data collected by FemTech, such as The EU General Data Protection Regulation [5]. In other countries, health data may be covered by more general data protection laws not specific to FemTech, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act in the US [9]. Yet in other countries, there is even a lack of regulations when it comes to health data privacy [10]. This lack of a uniform privacy framework for health data broadly and FemTech data specifically has led to a wide range of privacy practices within the FemTech industry. This is of particular relevance for FemTech technologies specifically designed for women, who have historically faced oppression by social and legal systems [5].
When looking at differences related to laws that directly affect RF and health, the situation becomes even more complex. Laws and cultural norms around RH vary widely around the world [5]. In some countries, pregnancy outside of marriage is a criminal offense. In other countries, abortion is not legal, and even miscarriages can risk jail time. Countries like Iran have a law that severely restricts access to abortion, contraception, voluntary sterilization services, and related information [11]. Under such conditions, FemTech data may capture information on illegal activities, thus endangering users of FemTech should this data be accessed or shared. An illustrative case is the US, where on June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ending almost 50 years of federally legal abortion [12, 13]. The overturn of Roe v. Wade allows states to make their own laws around abortion, leading to criminalization in some and liberalization in others. Where abortion is illegal, FemTech and other online data can then become an instrument to criminalize users [14,15,16]. As an example, in April 2017, a woman in Mississippi was accused of second-degree murder after experiencing a miscarriage and seeking treatment at a hospital. Prosecutors used her online search history and the purchase of the drug misoprostol as evidence to suggest that she had intentionally terminated her pregnancy [17]. In another example, the US Federal Trade Commission complaint revealed that the popular fertility tracking software, Premom by Easy Healthcare, shared users’ sensitive health information with third-party advertisers, including Google and the marketing firm AppsFlyer, without their consent since 2018 [18].
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