In a cruel but completely predictable twist, an app that guarantees everything for nine months for pregnancy as-you-money-back was too good to be true.
A data privacy watchdog has found that a top ovulation tracker Premom has secretly shared location data, ad IDs and ads for multiple devices from Android devices with Chinese data providers for ad companies. Some of the information is impossible to retrieve unless you destroy your device. Data from app analytics firm Sensor Tower shows that Premom’s ovulation tracker has been downloaded more than 120,000 times from the Google Play Store and iTunes in July 2020 alone.
The Washington Post has reported that of the International Digital Accountability Council (IDAC), which celebrated an investigation, found no evidence that Premom shared health-related information, but persistent, non-resettable hardware identifiers are almost as bad. With the named location, device and ad data, the companies could have deduced the identity of users, tracked the activity of browsing and use of other apps– and as a result, behavioral profiles may have developed well, that may include belief in users’ sexual identities, religious relationships, political preferences, health status, education level, and income bracket. Premom’s privacy policy states that it would “We will keep your personal data confidential and we will not give or sell your information to third party or non-affiliated companies without your consent.”
Premom, which is available for free in the Apple App and Google Play stores, seems to be generating revenue from its sister brand Easy @ Home: an Illinois-based online depot for home medical supplies, including drug tests and ovulation test strips, the latter of which are sold as complementary products to the app. However, the first red flag was the litany of data that Premom said it was collecting, until recently update in their privacy policy:
name, age, gender, date of birth, health information, email address, fertility information, social media account names, authentication information, inventory of installed applications on your device, phonebook or contact information, microphone and camera sensor data, sensitive device data, and more information you link to our application.
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It adds that users can “and may be required to” share information and give Premom access to third party services. (Now, it stands that users can unsubscribe via email to Premom, something that the average user probably does not know they can do.) IDAC notes in particular suspect that Premom may need a list of users’ other apps are used to profile users for ad targeting.
In a letter to Google, the FTC, and the Illinois Attorney General, IDAC identifies Chinese companies Jiguang, UMSNS, and Umeng as recipients of Premom data. The Alibaba company Umeng analyzes and publishes reports on app usage statistics, available to developers. Jiguang, also an analytics company, provides push notification software for apps, which IDAC claims aggressively sucks data without users’ knowledge or any obvious method to stop it. Not particularly reassuring, a Jiguang spokesman said in a statement shared with the Washington Post that it was “100% in compliance with Chinese laws” as well as Apple App store and Google Play guidelines. Gizmodo could not find any relevant information about UMSNS.
Data privacy protection is a mess in the United States, and as of now there are no federal data privacy rules. But Illinois, where parent company Premom Easy Healthcare Corporation is based, Has worked to pass on data privacy legislation what would give consumers the right to delete data and know who it is shared with, similar to the introduced landmark policy that California has this year.
Google also explicitly prohibits the scope of data hovering all in the IDAC letter, in particular the collection of ad IDs along with device identifiers, without permission. According to the Washington Post, Google briefly removed the app from its store on August 6, following a paper survey, but soon recovered it.
Assuming Premom updated the app and removed Chinese companies’ access to data, you can now rests easily in the know that Google Analytics and Facebook take good care of you. Gizmodo has reached out to Premom and the IDAC and will update the post when we hear back.
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