Expecting (Targeted Ads)? Network Analysis of User Health Data Leakage in Fertility Tracking Apps

Abstract

While human factors in the privacy of fertility tracking apps -- health trackers that record users' menstrual or pregnancy data -- has been the subject of extensive study, little attention has been paid to the technical aspects of apps' data handling practices. We conduct a network-based measurement study of a corpus of 20 Android fertility tracking apps from the Google Play Store, focusing on how user data is shared with third party advertising services. After systematizing app features, we conduct a series of standardized user interactions across all apps in an environment that records TLS-stripped network traffic. In a subset of apps (n=5) we identify explicit leakage of user health data as well implicit leakage through highly targeted contextual advertising URL's. Equally importantly, we observe additional apps that use an ad-based monetization model without apparent leakage of user data, as well as several apps the interact only minimally with ad services. These findings provide technical grounding for widespread user concerns, but also underscore the importance of consumer choice in the privacy implications of app-based fertility tracking.