Washington: The company behind a popular fertility app has agreed to pay $200,000 in federal and state penalties after authorities allege he shared users personal health information for years without their consent, including Google and two China-based companies, according to CNN Business.
The app, known as By the wayyou will also be prohibited from sharing personal health information for advertising purposes. You must ensure that data you shared without users’ consent is removed from third-party systems, according to the Federal Trade Commission, along with the attorneys general of Connecticut, the District of Columbia and Oregon.
Wednesday Proposed Settlement Target (local time) By the way highlights how regulators have intensified their scrutiny of fertility trackers and health information in the wake of the US Supreme CourtLast year’s decision to strike down federal protections for abortion, CNN Business said.
The personal data sharing allegedly affected hundreds of thousands of Premom users from at least 2018 through 2020, and violated a federal regulation known as the Health Breach Notification Ruleaccording to an FTC complaint against Easy Health careparent company of Premom.
Premom did not immediately respond to a request for comment. As part of the alleged breach, Premom collected and shared personally identifiable health information with Google and a third-party marketing company in violation of Premom’s own privacy policy, which had promised to share only “non-identifiable data” with others. , according to the complaint.
In addition, Premom allegedly shared location information and device identifiers, such as WiFi network names and hardware IDs, with two China-based data analytics companies, known as Jiguang and Umeng, according to the complaint.
That information, the FTC alleged, “could be used to identify Premom users and reveal to third parties that these users were using a fertility appaccording to an FTC complaint filed against Easy Health careparent company of Premom.
From the Supreme CourtThe Dobbs v. jacksonA wave of anti-abortion legislation has raised the possibility that fertility apps, search engines and other technology platforms will be forced to hand over user data in potential legal proceedings against those seeking an abortion, according to CNN Business.
“Now more than ever, with reproductive rights under attack across the country, it is essential that the privacy of health care decisions be vigorously protected,” DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb said in a statement. “My office will continue to make sure that businesses protect consumers’ personal information to protect against illegal encroachment on access to effective reproductive health care.”
