Pregnancy & Due Date Tracker

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.