Talk 1

What You Don't Expect When You're Expecting: Security and Privacy Analysis of Femtech

In this talk, we focus on femtech, a category of software, diagnostics, and products that serve female health needs. The most widely used services include fertility solutions, period-tracking, pregnancy and nursing care, women's sexual wellness, and reproductive system health care.

In 2018, femtech companies raised $392 million in funding, and some estimates project that femtech will be a $50 billion industry by 2025. While acknowledging the unprecedented growth and potential of the femtech industry, in this talk, we also recognize the importance, the sensitivity and the ease of access to the data recorded and shared by the femtech systems. We examine the range of threats arising from the misuse and abuse of femtech apps. We then audit a selection of femtech apps, to identify what data do such apps actually record, how are the data stored and transmitted, and how they are shared with data aggregators. The goal of this talk is to point out to the severe consequences of possible misuse of femtech services, and to examine appropriate technical and regulatory approaches to improve the current industry.