{"title":"Menstrual Cycle Tracking Apps: An Applied Combined Medical and Data Privacy Scoring.","authors":"Yasmin Nielsen-Tehranchian, Veronika Strotbaum, Monika Pobiruchin","doi":"10.3233/SHTI230715","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>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.</p>","PeriodicalId":39242,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Health Technology and Informatics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2023-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Studies in Health Technology and Informatics","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3233/SHTI230715","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"Health Professions","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
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.
期刊介绍：
This book series was started in 1990 to promote research conducted under the auspices of the EC programmes’ Advanced Informatics in Medicine (AIM) and Biomedical and Health Research (BHR) bioengineering branch. A driving aspect of international health informatics is that telecommunication technology, rehabilitative technology, intelligent home technology and many other components are moving together and form one integrated world of information and communication media.
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