Private health firm Flo Health resolves lawsuit concerning unauthorized disclosure of user health information
In a significant development, Flo Health, the makers of the popular women's health service app, has agreed to settle a class action lawsuit over allegations of unlawfully sharing users' personal data with third parties. The settlement amount, set at $3.5 million, is subject to final court approval and does not include an admission of wrongdoing by Flo Health.
The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California in 2021, drew on a 2019 Wall Street Journal report that shed light on Flo Health's years-long intimate health-data-sharing practices. The complaint accused Flo of unlawfully sharing highly sensitive health data of millions of US women with tech giants like Meta and Google, as well as other companies such as AppsFlyer and Flurry, without proper user consent, violating privacy laws.
The settlement comes after Flo Health reached a separate settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2021 over similar allegations. However, the specific financial details about that FTC settlement were not provided in the search results.
The data sharing occurred despite Flo's privacy policies and public assurances that users' personal data would not be transferred without explicit consent. Flo Health maintained that the claims lacked merit and that the lack of evidence to support these allegations became increasingly clear in court.
The settlement in principle was reached a day after US District Judge James Donato announced an insurmountable problem in the claimants' case regarding breaches of the California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act. This Act, extended in 2022 by the state of California's Assembly Bill 2089, now includes protections for mental health data and classifies any business offering a mental health digital service as a health care provider subject to the obligations of the Act.
Flo Health is represented by Brenda Sharton and Benjamin Sadun of Dechert in the Frasco v Flo Health Inc lawsuit. The company has stated that it is "pleased" at the resolution of the matter and that "the facts came out at the trial."
As of 2021, the Flo app had been downloaded over 165 million times and was the top-rated period tracker in the US and the most downloaded health app on the Apple App Store. The settlement, while significant, is a reminder for all digital service providers to prioritise user privacy and data protection.
[1] The settlement amount in the class action lawsuit against Flo Health for unlawfully sharing users' personal data with third parties was $3.5 million. This amount was agreed upon by the mobile analytics company Flurry, associated with the case, to end claims about unlawfully sharing data from the Flo menstrual cycle tracking app.
[2] Multiple claims that Flo Health improperly disclosed sensitive health information of millions of users to third parties like Google and Meta for advertising and commercial purposes without proper user consent, violating privacy laws.
[3] While the settlement was reached and announced in 2025, the terms are subject to final court approval, and no admission of wrongdoing was made by Flo Health as part of the agreement.
[4] The lawsuit accused Flo of unlawfully sharing highly sensitive health data of millions of US women with Meta, Google, AppsFlyer, and Flurry.
- The settlement amount in the class action lawsuit against Flo Health for improperly sharing users' personal data was $3.5 million, agreed upon with the mobile analytics company Flurry to end claims about data sharing from the Flo menstrual cycle tracking app.
- Multiple claims alleged that Flo Health had disclosed sensitive health information of millions of users to tech giants like Google and Meta, as well as other companies like AppsFlyer and Flurry, without proper user consent, violating privacy laws.
- While the settlement was announced in 2025, the terms are still subject to final court approval, and no admission of wrongdoing was made by Flo Health as part of the agreement.
- The lawsuit accused Flo of unlawfully sharing highly sensitive health data of millions of US women with Meta, Google, AppsFlyer, and Flurry.
