Nothing in this life is free. Or cheap. Free and low-cost apps. Free internet searches. Free email. Free iPhones. Yeah. We’re paying for it one way or the other. In this case, once again, it’s private health information some folks are paying with.  Here is an excerpt of a post shared with the permission of Fastcase and Law Street Media. —Tom Hagy, HB Litigation Conferences

WASHINGTON, DC — Jan. 13, 2021 — The Federal Trade Commission (FTC)  announced that that it has reached a  proposed settlement with Flo Health, Inc., the “developer of a period and fertility-tracking app used by more than 100 million consumers,” over claims that the company shared user health information with third-party data analytics providers despite promising that this information would remain private.

In the complaint, the FTC alleged that Flo promised users that it would keep their health data, which includes menstrual cycle tracking and a PMS symptom log, as well as ovulation, fertility, and pregnancy information, private because it would only use this information to provide the app’s services to users. However, the FTC averred that Flo disclosed millions of users’ health data from its Flo Period & Ovulation Tracker app to third-parties “that provided marketing and analytics services to the app, including Facebook’s analytics division, Google’s analytics division, Google’s Fabric service, AppsFlyer, and Flurry.”

Read the complete story and more at LawStreetMedia.com.