Period tracker Stardust shares users’ health data with analytics firm, says Mozilla research
Mozilla research has revealed that the period-tracking app Stardust shares sensitive user health data with a third-party analytics firm, contradicting its privacy claims. The findings highlight ongoing concerns regarding data privacy in health-focused mobile applications.
Why it matters
It underscores the risks users face when trusting health apps with sensitive information, especially in the context of changing reproductive rights legislation.
“Your data is private. Period,” says period tracker Stardust on its website. As new research by Mozilla discovered, some users might find that claim to be a stretch.
According to Mozilla’s latest findings examining the privacy practices of period-tracking apps, Stardust was found to be sharing users’ sensitive health information with third-party analytics company RudderStack. This data included the user’s birthdate, birth control type, reproductive goals, and specific symptoms that the user was experiencing, and it tied that record to a unique identifier in place of the person’s name. (The FTC has long warned that this does not make the data anonymous or prevent it from being linked back to a person.)
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