Navigating Privacy and Empowerment

In recent years, menstrual and fertility tracking apps have become a prominent part of many women's daily lives. These femtech tools promise empowerment through increased bodily awareness, cycle prediction, and health planning. However, they also operate within systems of datafication, monetization, and algorithmic governance that may limit user agency and compromise privacy. This thesis investigates how women experience empowerment and privacy while using menstrual and fertility tracking applications, with a particular focus on the popular app Flo. The central research question guiding this study is: How do women experience privacy and empowerment in relation to personal data and reproductive health management while using femtech apps, particularly Flo? To address this question, a qualitative, multi-method research design was used, combining six semi-structured interviews, a content analysis of 120 user reviews, and a critical reading of Flo's privacy policy and terms of service. The research is informed by an interdisciplinary theoretical framework drawing on feminist technology studies, self-tracking literature, and critiques of surveillance capitalism. The findings reveal that empowerment and vulnerability are not opposing outcomes, but often intertwined. Participants valued the sense of knowledge, clarity, and control that cycle tracking provided, yet also described emotional strain, guilt, or disillusionment when app predictions were inaccurate or access was limited by paywalls. Privacy concerns were present but rarely articulated in legal terms. Instead, users negotiated trust and discomfort through intuitive decisions about what data to log and what to withhold. Many accepted opaque data practices as the cost of access, reflecting a form of coerced consent. Still, small acts of resistance such as skipping features or limiting input were common. This study shows that empowerment in femtech is not straightforward. It is shaped by emotional labor, financial access, platform design, and sociocultural expectations. Ultimately, users navigate these apps not as passive recipients but as active, if constrained, participants in complex systems of digital reproductive care.