Apple’s Period Tracking Will Be Relatively Good for Your Privacy
When Apple announced this week that it will add a menstrual cycle tracker to Apple Watch , they very carefully emphasized that the data you enter will be encrypted on your device to keep your personal information private.
While that sounds fishy, why is n’t the company looking to monetize their data these days? -The policies are in line with Apple’s policy for other medical data, which may even include your actual medical records .
This is somewhat similar to a marketing strategy; The Verge claims Apple is positioning itself as a privacy-focused choice. Typically, Apple does not share data with other companies, such as advertisers, because it may use that data to serve you ads . (However, encrypted health data does not appear to be available for these purposes.)
As such, Apple Health is one of the few places where you can safely store sensitive data, at least for now. Other menstrual tracking apps we’d recommend if you’re privacy focused are Planned Parenthood ‘s SpotOn , which stores data on your device (and doesn’t have a data-driven business strategy), and the good old method of just tagging your dates in a calendar , digital or otherwise.