META Found Guilty of Mishandling Women’s Health Information

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• META Found Guilty of Mishandling Women’s Health Information - September 15, 2025

When Privacy Wins: The Meta Verdict and Why Purism Stands Apart

A federal jury in San Francisco found Meta liable under the California Invasion of Privacy Act for improperly collecting and using sensitive reproductive health data from users of the Flo Health app.

The case revealed that Meta’s embedded SDKs harvested intimate details—like menstrual cycles and pregnancy intentions—without informed consent, violating state privacy laws.

This landmark ruling signals a turning point for digital privacy enforcement, especially around health data and ad-tech practices

This verdict has the power to send a clear message to Big Tech: the era of unchecked data harvesting is over, especially when it comes to the most intimate details of our lives. “Should” is the operative word because big tech does not have a shining track record of respecting personal information and data of others.

The Case That Shook Ad-Tech

Evidence presented at trial revealed that Meta’s software development kit (SDK) embedded in Flo Health’s app recorded deeply personal information — menstrual cycles, pregnancy intentions, ovulation data — without user consent. This data was then used to fuel Meta’s targeted advertising algorithms.

The jury’s decision was unequivocal: Meta did not have consent. Damages could reach billions, and the chilling effect on ad-tech’s appetite for sensitive health data should be felt for years. This case is one of the first times a jury has pierced the veil of Big Tech’s data collection machinery.

The Case Exposed:

• The fragility of consent when buried in opaque privacy policies.
• The weaponization of SDKs as covert data pipelines.
• The human cost — women testifying about feeling violated when their most private health information was commodified.

It also underscored what privacy advocates have been shouting for years: If data can be collected, it can be misused.

The Purism Difference

At Purism, our approach is simple: We don’t collect any data from your device.

• We do not harvest personally identifiable information (PII).
• We do not embed third-party trackers, SDKs, or analytics that siphon your data elsewhere.
• We design systems where your private information (health, financial, and personal details) remain yours — by architecture, not by policy loophole.
• We do not collect any data from your device.

Because we never collect your data, we cannot misuse it. There is no “trust us” clause — there’s nothing to trust us with. This is privacy by design, not privacy by promise.

*Note: Purism receives customer shipping details to ship our products, but our products running on our OS have no user data collection on the device and never will.

A Wake-Up Call for the Industry

The Meta verdict is a warning shot to every company that treats user data as a limitless resource. It affirms that:

• Sensitive health data is not just another ad segment.
• Consent must be explicit, informed, and respected.
• Privacy violations carry real legal and reputational consequences.

For Purism, it’s validation. We’ve built our business on the principle that privacy is a human right, not a settings toggle. This verdict proves that the market — and now the courts — are catching up.

Bottom line: The safest data is the data never collected. Purism’s model ensures that your most personal information never becomes someone else’s business model.

You can read the full case coverage on Lawdragon’s report.

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