My Body, Their Business: User Perspectives on Commercial Data Practices in FemTech Apps

Paper Title

My Body, Their Business: User Perspectives on Commercial Data Practices in FemTech mHealth Apps

Publication Info

• Topic area: User perceptions of data practices in FemTech mobile health applications.
• Keywords: FemTech, mHealth, privacy, data commercialization, user perceptions, contextual integrity, provotypes, reproductive health, ethical design, data governance.

Background and Problem

• Problem / challenge: FemTech apps collect and commercialize sensitive health data, but little is known about how users perceive these practices or where they draw ethical boundaries.
• Significance: Understanding user perspectives is critical for designing ethical, transparent, and user-aligned FemTech applications, especially given the sensitive nature of reproductive health data.
• Motivation and related work: Prior work has documented privacy risks, opaque data practices, and ethical concerns in FemTech apps, but it has not sufficiently explored user judgments or the role of design in shaping these perceptions. This study addresses these gaps by examining user attitudes toward data collection and commercialization in FemTech.

Solution

• Proposed approach: A mixed-methods study combining factorial vignettes and provotypes to investigate user perceptions of FemTech data practices.
• Novelty:
  1. Empirical insights into user judgments of FemTech commercialization, highlighting key heuristics like relevance, intentionality, and value exchange.
  2. Extension of Contextual Integrity (CI) theory to explore prescriptive norms for data practices in FemTech.
  3. Use of provotypes to reveal how design framing influences user perceptions of commercial data practices.
• Procedure and key techniques:
  • Conducted an online survey with 187 participants recruited via Prolific.
  • Participants rated the appropriateness of data collection and commercial practices across three levels: data types, commercial purposes, and UI designs.
  • Used provotypes (interface prototypes) to compare promotional versus transparent framings of commercial practices.
  • Analyzed quantitative ratings with linear mixed-effects models and complemented with qualitative coding of open-ended responses.

Results

• Concrete findings:
  • Health-related data (e.g., menstrual and reproductive data) was judged more appropriate for collection than peripheral data (e.g., location, multimedia), with multimedia data rated most negatively (M = -76.48, SD = 40.71).
  • Premium feature suggestions were rated as the least objectionable commercial practice (M = -2.51, SD = 62.53), while AI training was rated the least appropriate (M = -76.48, SD = 40.71).
  • Provotypes with promotional framing elicited higher appropriateness ratings than textual vignettes or exaggerated transparency designs.
• Advantage over baselines:
  • Provotypes softened judgments of commercial practices compared to text-based descriptions, even when transparency was exaggerated.
  • Participants were more forgiving of practices when framed as beneficial or embedded in familiar app-like interfaces.
• Experiments / evaluation:
  • Used a within-subjects design with appropriateness ratings on a -100 to +100 scale.
  • Evaluated differences across data types, commercial practices, and presentation styles using linear mixed-effects models.
  • Collected qualitative reflections to contextualize quantitative findings.
• Limitations and future work:
  • Sample limited to U.S.-based participants, potentially limiting generalizability.
  • Provotypes differed in content and modality from text vignettes, making causal attribution difficult.
  • Future research should explore global perspectives, intersectional factors, and alternative commercial practices.

Summary

This study investigates user perceptions of data collection and commercialization in FemTech apps, revealing that judgments are shaped by relevance, intentionality, and perceived value exchange. Participants strongly resisted peripheral data collection and practices like AI training but were more accepting of health-related data collection tied to app functionality. Provotypes demonstrated that design framing significantly influences user judgments, with promotional interfaces eliciting softer responses than text descriptions. These findings highlight opportunities for ethical FemTech design and governance, emphasizing transparency, meaningful consent, and alignment with user expectations.