Pregnancy & Due Date Tracker

Warning: *Privacy Not Included with this product

Pregnancy & Due Date Tracker

Wachanga
Wi-Fi

Review date: Aug. 9, 2022

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Mozilla says

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People voted: Somewhat creepy

Small app developer Wachanga makes this app with quite the straightforward, no-frills name — Pregnancy and Due Date tracker. According to reviews, it's also a straight-forward, no-frills app good for second time moms looking for a simple way to track things like weight gain, blood pressure, baby bump growth, baby's first kicks, contractions, and more. You can then use the download-to-pdf feature to print out all that health information to share with your doctor on your next visit. Free to download, a paid subscription is required to use the app's features. Check lists, diaries, to-lists, and kegel exercise recommendations are all good, but what about their privacy and security? Well, it's kinda meh. Their privacy policy looks OK. Not great, but not the worst we've seen either. Their security practices however, those leave us with too many unanswered questions to feel great about this app that does track a whole lot of personal information.

Oh, one last thing. Wachanga also makes a few other apps like their Clover period tracking app, a Baby Care newborn diary, and our personal favorite, an app called Siberian Breath for meditation and relaxation. All these apps use the same privacy policy so if you're looking to use any of them, the same concerns raised in this review apply to those apps as well.

What could happen if something goes wrong?

Well, this pregnancy tracking app isn't the worst app we reviewed from a privacy perspective, so there's that. It's also probably fair to say it's privacy policy isn't great either. We'd say the privacy of this app falls somewhere squarely in between OK and Ick. We'll officially label it's privacy practices as "Meh". How's the for a review?

Here, let us offer a bit more to help you understand and make a smart decision if you're thinking of using this app to track your pregnancy. The Pregnancy & Due Date tracker app does collect a good amount of personal information. Everything from name, email address, phone number, gender, date of birth, location, place of residence, time zone, service preferences, identifiers to health data such as weight, body temperature, menstrual cycle dates, symptoms, health goals, upcoming doctors appointments and more. That's a lot of personal information they can collect. Their privacy policy does state, "You never have to provide personally identifiable information to Wachanga. However, should you choose to withhold certain required information, Wachanga may not be able to provide you with some or all of the Services."

What does Wachanga say they can do with all this information? Well, here's where things aren't so clear for us. Based on their privacy policy we think they might be OK, but we're also not quite sure. Your friendly *Privacy Not Included privacy researchers debated for a good bit about whether to ding them on this front and in the end decided to give them the benefit of the doubt...while acknowledging we did have a good bit of doubt. They say they can use your personal information to personalize your experience in the app, for scientific and academic research purposes, and "to link or combine with information we get from others (except data from Apple HealthKit, Core Motion Framework, and Google Fit) or (and) from you to help understand your needs and provide you with better service (to use in the training of neural networks, artificial intelligence, as well as for any other automated decision-making processing)". After much debate, we decided not to ding this app because their personal information sharing seemed to closely walk the line between sharing we usually ding, like sharing personal information with third parties for targeted, interested based advertising. or combining data from third parties to build a bigger ad profile on you. We don't ding them but we still do have concerns.

Another thing we have concerns about is how they say they can share data with law enforcement. Here at Mozilla, we like to see companies clearly state they won't voluntarily disclose data with law enforcement and that they won't give up user data to law enforcement unless required to under subpoena, and even then, we like to see them commit to only giving up the bare minimum necessary. Here's what we found in Wachanga's privacy policy in regards to sharing data with law enforcement: "Wachanga may disclose your personally identifiable information without your prior affirmative consent if it has a good-faith belief that disclosure is reasonably necessary to meet any applicable law, regulation, legal process, or enforceable governmental request or to investigate or protect against harmful activities to Wachanga’s guests, users, associates, or property or to others." AND "Wachanga may also be required by law enforcement or judicial authorities to provide personally identifiable information to appropriate governmental authorities. If requested by law enforcement or judicial authorities, Wachanga will provide this information upon receipt of appropriate documentation. Wachanga may also provide information to law enforcement to protect its property and the health and safety of individuals as permitted by statute." That leaves us concerned.

While the Pregnancy & Due Date Tracker app does leave us a bit worried about their commitment to protecting their user's privacy, we also have outstanding questions about the app's security. After emailing the company four times at the email address listed in their privacy policy for privacy and security related questions, we received no response. So we are unable to confirm if this app meets our Minimum Security Standards. Which earns this app our *Privacy Not Included warning label. What's the worst that could happen with the Pregnancy & Due Date Tracker? Well, we really hope they won't voluntarily disclose a whole bunch of user data to law enforcement in a state where abortion is no longer legal. That could potentially lead to the tracking and harassment of people who did nothing wrong. That would be ugly. Here's hoping it never happens.

Tips to protect yourself

  • When you no longer use the app, go to "Delete app data" in the app menu
  • Do not connect your wearables to the app
  • Do not register to the app using a social media account like Facebook or Twitter
  • Chose a strong password! You may use a password control tool like 1Password, KeePass etc.
  • Use your device privacy controls to limit access to your personal information via app (do not give access to your camera, microphone, images and videos)
  • Keep your app regularly updated
  • Limit ad tracking via your device (eg on iPhone go to Privacy -> Advertising -> Limit ad tracking) and biggest ad networks (for Google, go to Google account and turn off ad personalization)
  • mobile

Can it snoop on me? information

Camera

Device: N/A

App: No

Microphone

Device: N/A

App: No

Tracks location

Device: N/A

App: No

What can be used to sign up?

You can sign up using Facebook, Twitter, Google + or Instagram

What data does the company collect?

How does the company use this data?

You never have to provide personally identifiable information to Wachanga. However, should you choose to withhold certain required information, Wachanga may not be able to provide you with some or all of the Services.

In operating the Wachanga Website, Wachanga Apps and Services, Wachanga may engage third parties, such as e-mail service providers, purchase shipping and order processing merchants and marketing companies that act as independent contractors on behalf of Wachanga. These parties are contractually prohibited from using your personally identifiable information for any purpose other than for the purpose Wachanga specifies. Wachanga do provide non-personally identifiable information to certain service providers for their use on an aggregated basis for the purpose of performing their contractual obligations to Wachanga. They prohibit the sale or transfer of personal information to entities outside of the Wachanga’s affiliates for their use without your approval.

Solely with respect to information that you mark for sharing, your data can be used for Company promotional purposes.

Wachanga also uses third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit the Website, use Wachanga Apps or Services. These companies may use general information about your visits to the Website, Wachanga Apps and Services as well as other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you.

"We prohibit the sale or transfer of personal information to entities outside of the Wachanga’s affiliates for their use without your approval."

How the company says they may share data with law enforcement:

Wachanga may be required by law enforcement or judicial authorities to provide personally identifiable information to appropriate governmental authorities. If requested by law enforcement or judicial authorities, Wachanga will provide this information upon receipt of appropriate documentation. Wachanga may also provide information to law enforcement to protect its property and the health and safety of individuals as permitted by statute.

How can you control your data?

We ding this product as not all users may be able to delete their data.

Wachanga's privacy policy lists certain GDPR rights that you can exercise. It is unclear if all users can exercise these rights or just Europe residents.

You may always choose whether or not to disclose personally identifiable information and that choice will not prevent you from using the Services. Please note, however, if you should choose to withhold certain requested information, Wachanga may not be able to provide you with some of the Services dependent upon the collection of this information.

No retention details are provided.

What is the company’s known track record of protecting users’ data?

Average

No known privacy or security incidents discovered in the last 3 years.

Child Privacy Information

If you are aware of anyone under 13 using the Wachanga Services, please contact them at [email protected] and they will take required steps to delete such information and (or) delete their account.

If in EU, due to requirements of the GDPR, you shall be at least 16 years old in order to use the App.

Can this product be used offline?

Yes

User-friendly privacy information?

No

Links to privacy information

Does this product meet our Minimum Security Standards? information

Unknown

Encryption

Can’t Determine

Strong password

N/A

We found no way to create an account in the app

Security updates

Yes

Manages vulnerabilities

Can’t Determine

Privacy policy

Can’t Determine

Does the product use AI? information

Can’t Determine

Is this AI untrustworthy?

Can’t Determine

What kind of decisions does the AI make about you or for you?

Is the company transparent about how the AI works?

Can’t Determine

Does the user have control over the AI features?

Can’t Determine

*Privacy Not Included

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