Popular Fertility App Sued Over Allegedly Sharing Personal Data With Chinese Firms

A popular fertility app has been sued for allegedly sending personal data to Chinese analytics firms without users’ consent. Premom, a digital ovulation tracker owned by Illinois-based company Easy Healthcare, came under scrutiny last year when a privacy watchdog group found that the app on Android devices was sharing data about the user without permission, with three Chinese firms that focus on advertising. The shared information included location data and unique device identifiers, which can be used to track a user’s activities across websites and other apps, the International Digital Accountability Council (IDAC) said in August 2020. Such data is also used by analytics firms to build profiles of consumer behavior. The three firms were Jiguang, UMSNS, and Umeng, all Chinese data analytics companies. Umeng is a Beijing-based startup owned by e-commerce giant Alibaba. In a class-action lawsuit filed at a district court in Illinois on Jan. 20, those allegations against Easy …