Privacy at PERIOD. vs. other cycle apps, explained in plain language
Cycle apps know a lot about you: when you bleed, when you have sex, whether you're trying to conceive, how you sleep, how you feel. That's intimate data, and many popular apps either sell it, share it with ad networks, or store it on servers far outside Europe.
At PERIOD. we do things differently. Below is exactly how, in plain language, based on our actual privacy policy. No marketing fluff.
1. What do we store? Only what the app needs.
- Account: email (to log in) and optionally a display name.
- Cycle: start and end dates of your period, flow intensity, and symptoms or notes you choose to log.
- Profile (optional): things like weight, contraception, conditions (PMS, PMDD, PCOS, endometriosis), only if you enter them yourself, for better predictions.
- AI conversations: what you type to the AI, so you can revisit your own chat history.
2. What do we not collect?
- ❌ No cookies in the app. No tracking pixels, no ad cookies. On our website we only use what's strictly necessary for the site to function.
- ❌ No analytics. No Google Analytics, no Meta pixels, no Mixpanel, nothing tracking your behaviour.
- ❌ No location. We don't know where you are.
- ❌ No advertising ID. We don't ask for tracking permission and never link your data to an advertising ID.
- ❌ No data from other apps. We don't peek into your health app, calendar or messages.
3. Do we sell your data? No. Not even "anonymised".
We never sell, rent or share your data with third parties for marketing, advertising or commercial purposes. No advertisers, no data brokers, no insurers, no research institutions. Full stop.
This is where we genuinely differ from many big tracker apps. Investigations (including by Radar / AVROTROS) have shown that popular period apps share cycle and pregnancy data with third parties, sometimes even ad networks. We don't. That isn't a marketing line; it's literally section 7 of our privacy policy.
4. Where does your data live? In the EU. Encrypted.
- 📍 Servers inside the European Union. Your data falls under GDPR.
- 🔒 Encrypted in transit and at rest (HTTPS/TLS + encryption at rest).
- 🛡️ Row-level security. At the database level, only you can access your rows, not other PERIOD. users, and not our staff in normal flows.
5. Who helps us technically, and what do they see?
We're a small team. We rely on a handful of sub-processors, all named in section 7 of our privacy policy:
- Database & auth (Supabase): hosts your account and data on EU servers. Acts strictly on our instructions.
- Secured AI gateway: routes your AI requests to the underlying model (Google Gemini). Under the gateway's terms, your messages are not used to train models.
- Apple & Google: distribute the app via the App Store and Google Play. They see downloads and crash stats on your device under their own policies, we don't receive that personal data.
- AppsFlyer (iOS only): measures whether an install came from one of our campaigns. Receives no advertising ID and no cycle or health data.
- RevenueCat: handles PERIOD. plus subscriptions. Sees payment status, no health data.
6. And the AI assistant?
Our AI assistant (Google Gemini, via a secured gateway) can answer questions about your cycle. Hard rules apply:
- ✅ You must give explicit consent first. No consent = no AI.
- ✅ Per the AI gateway's terms, your messages are not used to train models.
- ✅ Your conversations are stored in our own database (so you can read them back), not at the AI provider.
- ✅ Everything runs over encrypted connections.
- ✅ You can delete your account at any time, your AI conversations go with it.
7. Your rights, concretely
- Access: everything we have is visible to you in the app.
- Correction: change your data anytime.
- Erasure: Settings → Delete account wipes everything: live data within 30 days, backups within another 14. Including AI chats, symptoms and profile.
- Object or complain: reach us at hi@myperiod.app, or the Dutch Data Protection Authority.
8. PERIOD. vs. other apps, the short version
- Tracking & cookies: we don't. Many other apps do.
- Ads: we have zero. Many other apps run on ad models.
- Sharing data with third parties: we share nothing for marketing or ads. Other apps have repeatedly been called out for this.
- Servers: we run in the EU. Many large apps run (partly) in the US.
- Account deletion: one button in the app, everything truly gone. Not always that easy elsewhere.
- Owner: small, female-led team in Amsterdam, led by Lisa Volkers. No shareholders pushing for growth-via-data.
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Want to try PERIOD.? Download from the App Store or on Google Play. Free. Ad-free. Your data stays yours.
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