FTC accuses fertility tracking app with sharing data with China, Google

A complaint by the Federal Trade Commission accuses popular fertility tracking app Premom of illegally sharing private data.

In the complaint, the agency says the app, developed by Easy Healthcare, has been sharing private information with Google and Chinese analytic companies since 2018. Easy Healthcare shared data about users’ reproductive health, pregnancy status and other health-related information that could identify users.

The sharing of individual users’ private information violates the company’s own privacy policy, according to the FTC. The policy promised to share only data that could not be used to identify an individual user.

Easy Healthcare also apparently shared identifiable information, like geolocation data, with Chinese analytic companies Jiguang and Umeng. The company did so knowing that the two firms would use the data for their own business purposes or transfer it to another third party.

According to the complaint, Easy Healthcare stopped sharing data with the firms only after Google notified it that the policy violated the terms and conditions of its app store.

“We will vigorously enforce the Health Breach Notification Rule to defend consumer’s health data from exploitation. Companies collecting this information should be aware that the FTC will not tolerate health privacy abuses,” Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection Sam Levine said.

In response to the complaint, Easy Healthcare agreed to pay $100,000 in civil penalties for violating the FTC’s Health Breach Notification Rule, which requires companies that hold personal health records to notify consumers when personal information is leaked to outside parties. The company will pay an additional $100,000 to Connecticut, Oregon and the District of Columbia, all of which helped the commission’s investigation and will split the proceeds.

“Our agreement with the FTC is not an admission of any wrongdoing,” a statement on Premom’s website reads. “Rather, it is a settlement to avoid the time and expense of litigation and enables us to put this matter behind us and focus on you, our users.”