Evervault offers free encryption for women’s health apps

The encryption firm Evervault has announced that it will now offer its encryption services to women's health apps, free of charge.  

The firm’s decision comes after the recent overturning of Roe V Wade, which will see a predicted 26 US states introduce anti-abortion laws.  

Why has there been a call for women’s health apps to prioritise encryption?  

Evervault made the announcement after reports of women across America deleting their period-tracking mobile apps. There are widespread fears that any un-encrypted data collected by these apps could be used as proof against them, in future criminal cases.

By introducing in-app encryption, through cybersecurity services such as those provided by Evervault, providers of women’s healthcare apps can ensure that no plaintext data on a user is visible. This will, therefore, remove the risk of such user information being collected by law enforcement in the future. 

"Health tracking apps must prepare for when they are faced with legal action seeking users' data to prosecute women who have looked to use abortion services,” warns Shane Curran, the Founder and CEO of Evervault. 

“Privacy-focused regulation like GDPR and the CCPA goes a long way to safeguarding health data but it would be a mistake to rely on these laws alone. Instead, health companies must take proactive steps to store as little data on a user as possible and implement strong encryption by default to prevent the misuse of sensitive information.”