Evaluating the Privacy Policies of Mobile Personal Health Records for Pregnancy Monitoring
Abstract
A mobile personal health record (mPHR) for pregnancy monitoring allows the pregnant woman to track and manage her personal health data. However, owing to the privacy and security issues that may threaten the exchange of this sensitive data, a privacy policy should be established. The aim of this study is to evaluate the privacy policies of 19 mPHRs for pregnancy monitoring (12 for iOS and 7 for Android) using a template covering the characteristics of privacy, security, and standards and regulations. The findings of this study show that none of the privacy policies evaluated entirely comply with the characteristics studied. The developers of mPHRs for pregnancy monitoring are, therefore, requested to improve and pay more attention to the structure and the content of the privacy policies of their apps.
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Examples of evaluation methods at the end-user stage include studies of privacy in app user interfaces and analysis of publicly available information such as privacy policies or data handling information.
“Examples of the evaluation methods here include studies of privacy in app user interfaces [66] and analysis of publicly available information in relation to the privacy and security of existing apps, such as privacy policies [1] or data handling information [60], [79].”
From Security and Privacy of mHealth Applications: A Scoping Review (2020) · cites this paper as [1]
Cites
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Self-citationPrivacy in mobile technology for personal healthcare
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Security and Privacy of mHealth Applications: A Scoping Review
Nurgalieva, L., O'Callaghan, D., & Doherty, G. (2020) · IEEE Access · doi:10.1109/access.2020.2999934 · Cited by 132 · see citing works
“INTRODUCTION There is a growing body of literature that recognises the potential of mobile applications (apps) to improve access to healthcare and provide real-time monitoring and self-management of various health conditions [1]–[3].”
BackgroundPrivacy Assessment in Mobile Health Apps: Scoping Review
Benjumea, J., Ropero, J., Rivera-Romero, O., Dorronzoro-Zubiete, E., & Carrasco, A. (2020) · JMIR mHealth and uHealth · doi:10.2196/18868 · Cited by 69 · see citing works
- Authors
- Bachiri, M., Idri, A., Fernández-Alemán, J. L., & Toval, A.
- Affiliations
- Mohammed V University (MA)
- Universidad de Murcia (ES)
- Corresponding author
- Bachiri, Mariam
- Venue
- Journal of Medical Systems
- Published
- 2018-06-29
- Volume
- 42
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 144-144
- ISSN
- 0148-5598 (ISSN-L)
- 1573-689X
- OpenAlex
- W2810415141
- Cited by
- 36
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 8.40
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Journal of Medical Systems (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad
- Centre National pour la Recherche Scientifique et Technique
- Ministère de l'Enseignement Supérieur, de la Recherche Scientifique et de la Formation des Cadres
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Mobile Health and mHealth Applications
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Privacy, Security, and Data Protection
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Thoreau and American Literature
- Keywords
- pregnancy monitoring, privacy policies, privacy policy evaluation, health data security, sensitive health data, mobile health apps, iOS app, Android application
- MeSH terms
- Female, Humans, Pregnancy, Computer Security, Privacy, Pregnant Women, Pregnant People, Health Records, Personal, Mobile Applications
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