Radar (AVROTROS): "Your Intimate Data Isn't Safe With Popular Period Apps"

On 24 March 2026, Radar (AVROTROS), one of the Netherlands' best-known consumer investigation programs, published a piece with a headline that didn't mince words: "Your intimate data isn't safe with popular period apps." Large, widely used apps were discussed and privacy experts were quoted. And one number stuck: an estimated one million Dutch women use a period app.

What Radar uncovered

Radar dug into how the biggest period apps handle the most intimate data you can log: your cycle, your sex life, your moods, your contraception, your fertility. Their conclusion wasn't gentle, that data isn't always handled with the care you'd hope. Consent is often vague, third-party sharing happens, and what happens to your data after you delete the app is frequently a mystery.

Bits of Freedom was rightly critical. Because this isn't just "some data". It's health data, the category EU privacy law (GDPR) gives extra protection for a reason.

One million Dutch women

One million. That's the estimated number of Dutch women using a cycle app. Women who want to understand their bodies better, know when they're ovulating, or simply predict their next period. All entirely reasonable.

The problem isn't that they use these apps. The problem is that the market standard doesn't serve them.

What our founder Lisa said

Lisa Volkers, founder of PERIOD. responded to the Radar piece with a clear message: a million Dutch women use a cycle app to better understand their own health, and meanwhile their most intimate data is being quietly passed on. Women deserve tools that take them seriously, not exploit them. Radar made painfully clear that the big players don't.

Why this is exactly why PERIOD. exists

PERIOD. isn't a reaction to one investigation. It's a reaction to an entire market that normalised the wrong business model for years, one where "free" really means: you're the product.

That's why we deliberately chose different ground rules:

• Privacy-first. No ads, no tracking, no selling your data. Period.
• A Dutch cycle app. Built under Dutch and EU law, no detour via US data brokers.
• Ownership. Your data is yours. Delete your account in one tap, including everything you ever logged.
• Female-first. Built by women, for women, no patronising tone, no pink florals.

#1 in Health & Fitness at launch

At launch, PERIOD. became number one in Health & Fitness in the Dutch App Store. Tens of thousands of people now use the app daily. The recurring response: "finally an app that doesn't treat me like a data point."

We're now expanding internationally. Because the problem Radar exposed isn't only Dutch, and the solution doesn't have to be either.

What you can do

• Read your current app's privacy policy. Really. It's often more shocking than you'd think.
• Delete your account, not just the app. "App removed" doesn't mean "data removed".
• Choose tools that explain how they make money. If that answer stays vague, you know enough.

Closing thought

Ownership of your own health data shouldn't be a luxury. It should be the default. The Radar investigation made painfully clear how far we still are from that, and why a different kind of cycle app isn't just possible, but necessary.

Source: Radar (AVROTROS), 24 March 2026.

Download PERIOD. (App Store · Google Play) and see for yourself what a cycle app feels like without a hidden revenue model.