A $200 million dollar women’s health app owned by two men from Belarus is potentially in the hot seat. Again.
In 2021, The Washington Post reported that Flo, a women’s sex life, relationships, menstrual and pregnancy app had violated women’s privacy, beginning allegedly in 2017. The company, which touted 150 million women app users, was accused of providing intimate, personal information to Google, Facebook, and possibly other search engines and social media apps in order to profit.
The FTC had recently stepped in and slapped the company on the wrist with a few actions to be executed to help remedy the privacy violations.
But an FTC spokesperson, according to the news article, claimed, “The FTC did not have the authority to obtain damages for the breach…” According to the article, the FTC could only “seek payment from Flo if the company went on to violate the terms of the finalized orders.”
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Meanwhile, online publishers are receiving Flo app advertisements from, at least, Google, pitching orgasm training accompanied by a genital sketch. Research indicates the ads are from Flo.
Despite the offensiveness to some women, and its exposure to women who claim they did not search for sexual teaching, the ads appear. One woman indicated, “I am long past menopause and have no interest in seeing this ad, and never conducted any type of related search that would flag me as a prospect for this ad.”
However, a woman need not conduct a search that indicates she is open to receiving such an advertisement. Other people on a user’s “ip hub,” for example, may have conducted a related search and captured the uninterested user through WiFi and cell IP addresses.
Tampa Free Press suggests that its readers contact the Federal Trade Commission if they feel at risk from Flo’s advertisements or privacy violations.
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