The team behind menstrual health and period tracking app Clue has said it will not disclose users’ data to American authorities, following Donald Trump’s reelection.
The message comes in response to concerns that during Trump’s second presidency, abortion bans that followed the overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022 will worsen and states will attempt to increase menstrual surveillance in order to further restrict access to terminations.
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin has blocked a bill in the state that would have banned law enforcement from enforcing search warrants for menstrual data stored in tracking apps on mobile phones or other electronic devices, according to the Houston Chronicle. And other states have passed or attempted to pass bills that would require medical care facilities and providers to report why women received abortions, as well as other personal information.
Newsweek has reached out to Clue, the Trump campaign and Youngkin for comment via email.
In a statement on TikTok, female and male staff members at Clue, based in Berlin, stand together with arms crossed, along with a text on screen that reads: “We have never and will never disclose any member’s private health data to any authority. If we are ever subpoenaed, we will not comply.”
Gareth Fuller/Associated Press
Clue’s video has since gone viral on TikTok and gained 160,000 likes, more than 6,000 bookmarks, and nearly 1,500 comments.
In a statement online yesterday from Clue, CEO Rhiannon White said, “Clue was created to give you the ability to build your own cycle health record and to be able to use it to gain invaluable insights to help give you agency when it comes to your menstrual and reproductive health.
“With Clue, you have the ability to better understand what’s going on inside your body. It turns your data into a resource. One that can help you discover and anticipate patterns, identify changes, make informed decisions, and in some cases, even save your life.”
She added: “It’s why we so firmly believe that as women and people with cycles, our health data must serve us and never be used against us or for anyone else’s agenda.
“We take the responsibility of protecting it extremely seriously, because everyone should be able to confidently keep a health record and trust that it will always be kept safe and secure. And that is exactly our promise to you. Now and always.”
The period-tracking app was founded in 2012 by Ida Tin, Hans Raffauf, Moritz von Buttlar, and Mike LaVigne and allows 10 million people in over 190 countries to track their menstrual cycle. Clue does not store or share users’ data, which is considered sensitive data, without explicit permission, according to the Mozilla Foundation.
In the U.S. in 2022, there were 55 million users of Clue and Flo, another period-tracking app. Clue told Newsweek the majority of its 10 million active monthly users are located in the U.S. Clue was attracting the third highest revenue of period-tracking apps globally in July 2024, as shown in this graph created by Newsweek.
Trump has said he would not sign a federal abortion ban, leaving abortion access up to individual states. But Trump’s administration could further limit abortion access through the FDA rescinding the licensing of the abortion medication mifepristone.
The Trump administration could also limit abortion access by enforcing the 1873 Comstock Act which prohibits mailing and receiving ‘obscene’ materials, specifically those meant to induce abortion, or prohibit providers who receive federal aid from referring patients seeking abortion care.
The research and policy NGO the Guttmacher Institute also recently reported that implementation of the Comstock Act could also allow the Trump administration to effectively ban access to abortion nationwide.
The Institute also highlighted that the Trump administration could stop enforcing the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act’s requirement that “hospitals provide emergency abortion care to any patient who needs it,” as well as eradicate President Joe Biden’s actions to protect and expand access to reproductive services.
Out of fear of what lies ahead, women across the nation have been preparing for new restrictions regarding abortion access by stockpiling abortion pills and hormones, with one provider, Aid Access, receiving more than 5,000 requests in 12 hours, according to the Guardian.
Other providers began seeing similar results shortly after the election. There was a 300 percent increase in requests for emergency contraception from the telehealth service Wisp and the abortion pill nonprofit Plan C had a 625 percent increase in traffic.
Abortion access did slightly widen on election day, however, as seven out of 10 states including Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, and more passed ballot measures that will protect or expand access to abortion care.
Period-tracker app Flo has also made similar efforts to safeguard users’ data and posted on Instagram about their “Anonymous Mode” which “gives you access to Flo without the possibility that your information could be traced back to you.”
Newsweek reached out to Flo.health for comment via email.
