This story is especially unsettling not only because a well-known app is said to have shared private health information without permission, but also because of the type of information it contained. not a habit of shopping. not the history of searches. cycles of menstruation. attempts at pregnancy. windows of fertility. Most people wouldn’t divulge such information to a close friend, much less a major tech company.
Along with Google and analytics company Flurry, Flo Health, the developer of one of the most popular period and ovulation tracking apps in the world, is currently facing a $59.5 million class action settlement. The agreement would settle claims that, between November 2016 and February 2019, Flo surreptitiously gave third parties, such as Google and Meta, access to users’ extremely private reproductive health information. The lawsuit alleges that all of this occurred without the users’ knowledge or meaningful consent.
The language of Flo’s own privacy policy at the time makes the case a little more painful. The company made it clear that personal information would not be sent to outside parties without the express consent of the user. However, the plaintiffs claim that Flo integrated software development kits from Google, Meta, and Flurry into its app; this code purportedly piped user data back to those companies in the background. When users entered the date of their most recent menstruation, they had no reason to believe that the data was leaving Flo’s servers.
The settlement’s disintegration provides its own narrative. Given its bigger role and possibly larger financial resources, Google agreed to pay $48 million. Flurry independently came to a $3.5 million settlement, while Flo settled for $8 million. Although none of the defendants acknowledged any wrongdoing—a typical legal stance in settlements of this type—agreeing to pay nearly sixty million dollars to end a lawsuit is a statement in and of itself. Although settlements are not always interpreted by courts as admissions, people do.
Any American who entered menstruation, fertility, or pregnancy data into the Flo app between November 1, 2016, and February 28, 2019 is covered by the settlement for women who used the app during that time. An equal portion of the corresponding settlement funds may be awarded to qualified users who submit a legitimate claim form. Residents of California, who are shielded by the state’s stricter privacy laws, might get twice as much money—a sign of how seriously California courts take data privacy violations.
Because the Meta aspect of this case took a different turn, it’s worth taking a moment to consider it. The jury found in favor of the plaintiffs after a trial against Meta ended in August 2025. That result sets it apart from the settlement that Google and Flo negotiated, and it shows that at least one jury considered the behavior to be serious enough to rule against a defendant instead of allowing it to end amicably.
Beyond any one app, there is a larger picture here. Over the past ten years, women’s health applications have grown significantly, and they are particularly sensitive due to the private nature of the information they gather, such as sexual activity, pregnancy status, and reproductive cycles. The Flo lawsuit comes at a time when people are becoming much more conscious of the use of data by health apps, especially since reproductive rights changed in the US. The risks of such data being misused or made public seem greater than they might have been ten years ago.
The final number of users filing claims and the size of individual payouts are still unknown. A final approval hearing is set for late October of 2026, and claim forms must be submitted by October 15th of that year. It’s another matter entirely whether the settlement completely appeases those who believed their privacy was violated. The sum of sixty million dollars is significant. However, it seems that many users were more interested in an answer than a check.
