A new encrypted period tracker app called Embody that touts itself as privacy-forward plans to launch this summer, the company announced this week on International Women's Day.
Led by a team of women, Embody leverages cryptography to guarantee local storage of data and end-to-end encryption. The waitlist for the app, which is being built out in an incubator with Thesis, a cryptography firm, is now open. The first version of the app is expected to launch this summer. Embody’s source code will be publicly available, so anyone can verify that it is delivering on its security promises, executives said.
The idea for the company came from founder and CEO Anna Hall, an educator with premenstrual dysphoric disorder who for years has relied on tracking her cycle to understand and manage her condition. She did so with apps—until the Dobbs decision in the summer of 2022.
“It was an essential tool in my life and then after Roe v. Wade was overturned, me and a lot of my friends felt like the rug was pulled out from under us,” Hall told Fierce Healthcare. For Hall, who is based in the red state of Georgia, it meant returning to pen and paper to track her cycle.
Having friends and family in the cryptography space, Hall knew a technology to protect data already existed. She envisioned a future where “you don’t have to opt into your security.”
The Embody app will be free to download. A premium version will be available for purchase and will include access to exclusive resources on cycle syncing. Cycle syncing is an emerging area in women’s health, defined by the practice of structuring your lifestyle like diet, exercise, work efficiency and relationship health around your menstrual cycle, Hall explained.
Millions of U.S. women use apps to track their menstrual cycles. But since the Dobbs decision, concerns about data privacy have grown as law enforcement and prosecutors use digital trails to criminally charge women and mainstream period tracking apps were shown to have faulty or weak security.
Most other Thesis incubator participants are focused on cryptocurrency, Hall noted, adding she hopes this technology becomes more widespread in the public health arena.
“It's about time that we used this type of privacy-forward technology such as cryptography for public good,” Hall said.
Embody has been a part of the Thesis incubator since September and will continue participating until the company is ready to fundraise, according to Hall.
“The default has been, ‘Trust us with your data and we won’t misuse it.’ It’s time for a shift,” Hall said. “We have the technology to now say, 'We can’t misuse your data because we built technology that means that we do not have your data.'”